Sterculia foetida - Meet the Plants - National Tropical Botanical Garden Plant Database

Meet the Plants

Home

Photo Gallery

Choose A Plant

Permission to Use Photos

Links

Kids' Corner!

Currently Viewing: Sterculia foetida

Sterculia foetida - Ripe fruit showing seeds

P. Goltra

Other Resources for Sterculia foetida

Sterculia foetida - branch detail with green and ripe fruit

branch detail with green and ripe fruit (photo)

Sterculia foetida - Empty split fruit (L) and ripe fruit with seeds (R)

Empty split fruit (L) and ripe fruit with seeds (R) (photo)

full view of tree (photo)

Sterculia foetida - Ripe fruit splitting to show seeds

Ripe fruit splitting to show seeds (photo)

Unripe green fruit (photo)

Leaf and ripe fruit with seeds (photo)

Fruiting branches (photo)

Sterculia foetida - Branch with fruit and flowers

Branch with fruit and flowers (photo)

Sterculia foetida - Branch with leaves flowers

Branch with leaves flowers (photo)

Flowers (photo)

Taxonomy:

Sterculia foetida (Sterculiaceae)

Common Names:
Java-Olive
Skunk tree
Poon tree

Classification:

Sterculia foetida L.
Kingdom: Plantae-Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta-Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta-Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta-Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida-Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Sterculiaceae-Cacao family
Genus: Sterculia L. - Sterculia
Species: Sterculia foetida L. - Sterculia
(National Plant Database. 2003.)

Description:

Java olive is a soft wooded tree that grows up to 115 feet high. In tea growing regions the soft wood is used to make tea chests.

The tree has smooth, grayish-white bark and a fibrous inner bark. The large, palmately compound leaves are crowded at the ends of the branches and have 5-9 leaflets. The foul smelling flowers are bell-shaped, 5-lobed, yellowish green when they open and later turn deep red. The woody, bright-red fruit consist of 1-5 spreading follicles that are armed with stiff stinging bristles along the inner margins. Each follicle splits to reveal up to 17 blue-black seeds attached to the inner margins.
(Barwick, M. 2004. Tropical & Subtropical Trees: An Encyclopedia. Staples, G. W. & D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora.)

Geographic Distribution:

The Java-olive occurs in seasonally dry areas of the Old World tropics. It is occasionally cultivated in Hawai'i, but is best admired from afar when flowering because of the offensive smell.

Food Uses:

Some sources report the seeds to be edible raw, but other sources state should be roasted first. (Staples, G. W. & D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora.)

Dangerous/Poisonous:

Raw seeds may be poisonous.

Preservation and Conservation Strategies:

Plants are readily propagated from seed and need no special care. (Staples, G. W. & D. R. Herbst. 2005. A Tropical Garden Flora.)

Indigenous Practices:

Share This Page | Back to top

Choose a Plant

Users of this search feature should note that common names are often used for more than one plant species.
When searching for common names in the Hawaiian language, the name may include okina, each instance represented by an apostrophe (') or glottal stop (`).