''Careya arborea'' is a species of tree in the

Lecythidaceae The Lecythidaceae ( ) comprise a family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia. Well known members of the family include the cannonball tree ...

family, native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. Its common English names include wild guava, Ceylon oak, patana oak. ''Careya arborea'' is a

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree that grows up to high. Its leaves turn red in the cold season. Flowers are yellow or white in colour that become large green berries. The tree grows throughout India in forests and grasslands.

Common names

* Assamese: , , *

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: * Burmese: () *

Garo Garo may refer to: People and languages * Garo people, a tribal people in India ** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe Places * Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia * Garo, Colorado * Garo Hills, part of the ...

: *

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: *

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

: , , , * Khasi: * Khmer: () *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

: *

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

: * Oriya: *

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

: , * Sinhala: *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

: *

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

: * Thai: () *

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

: (sometimes )

Uses

In colonial times in India, the fibrous bark of this tree was found to be an ideal substitute for

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

bark as matches for

matchlocks A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of flammable cord or twine that is in contact with the gunpowder through a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or tri ...

. The ''Careya arborea'' leaves are traditionally used to roll

cheroot The cheroot is a filterless cylindrical cigar with both ends clipped during manufacture. Since cheroots do not taper, they are inexpensive to roll mechanically, and their low cost makes them popular. The word 'cheroot' probably comes via Portug ...

s in Myanmar (Burma). The town of

Pyay Pyay, and formerly anglicised as Prome, is the principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Ayeyarwady Delta, Centr ...

(formerly Prome) is known for a local delicacy known as '' taw laphet'' (; ) or '' laphet'' () that is tightly packed in parcel-like ''Careya arborea'' leaves for fermentation and preservation purposes. Flowers and young leaves are eaten as salad greens in Thailand. Young fruit is reported to be edible, though seeds are slightly poisonous.

Gallery

File:Careya arborea (Wild guava)fruit in Narsapur forest, AP W IMG 0148.jpg, Fruit in

Narsapur, Medak district Narsapur formally Gandi Narsapuram, is a census town in Medak district of the Indian state of Telangana. It is located in Narsapur mandal. Narsapur is a Municipality. Narsapur is located 50 km from Hyderabad Demographics Telugu is ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. File:Careya arborea (Wild guava) leaves in Narsapur forest, AP W IMG 0153.jpg, Fruit with leaves in

. File:Careya arborea (Wild guava) leaves in Narsapur forest, AP W IMG 0150.jpg, Leaves in

. File:Careya arborea (Wild guava) in Narsapur forest, AP W IMG 0152.jpg, Trunk in

. File:Grey Count (Tanaecia lepidea) caterpillar on Careya arborea W IMG_2390.jpg, Grey Count ''

Tanaecia lepidea ''Tanaecia lepidea'', the grey count, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South and Southeast Asia. Description Upperside dark brown, paler in the female, with very obscure black markings of transverse lines across the cells of both ...

'' caterpillar on ''Careya arborea'' sapling in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

References

External links

Agroforestry Tree Database
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Careya Arborea Lecythidaceae Flora of Afghanistan Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China Inflorescence vegetables

Common names

Uses

Gallery

See also

References

External links