5083.000 Sterculia L.

Description of the genus

Trees with leaves entire or lobed. Flowers borne on panicles appearing with the new foliage. Trees monoecious or dioecious. Flowers bisexual or unisexual. Calyx 4-5-lobed; petals 0. Male flowers with 10-20 anthers in a capitate cluster borne on a slender androphore. Ovary of female flowers with 4-5 coherent carpels; 2 to many ovules per carpel. Fruit a cluster of follicles, often woody.

Derivation of name: The genus is named for Sterculius, the Roman god for manure, the reason being the unpleasant smell of the flowers of some species, e.g. Sterculia foetida.

Worldwide: Throughout the tropics, with about 24 species in Africa.

Zimbabwe: 2 cultivated taxa.

Sterculia tragacantha

Links to cultivated taxa    View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesContent
foetida L.
tragacantha Lindl.Image

Other sources of information about Sterculia:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Sterculia
Flora of Caprivi: Sterculia
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Sterculia
Flora of Malawi: Sterculia
Flora of Mozambique: Sterculia
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Sterculia
Flora of Zambia: Sterculia
Flora of Zimbabwe: Sterculia

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Sterculia
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Sterculia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Sterculia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Sterculia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Sterculia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Sterculia
JSTOR Plant Science: Sterculia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Sterculia
Plants of the World Online: Sterculia
Tropicos: Sterculia
Wikipedia: Sterculia

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2002-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Zimbabwe: Cultivated plants: genus page: Sterculia.
https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/cult/genus.php?genus_id=955, retrieved 28 March 2024

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