Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm.

Description :

This plant is a small to medium sized deciduous tree growing up to 7 m tall, with a broad, dome shaped crown. The trunk has the colour of greenish brown The leaves are pinnate and are 15-40cm long, leaflets are up to 3 to 8cm long, with a deeply notched margin; the larger leaflets at the midpoint of the leaf are sometimes themselves pinnate but the leaves are not consistently fully bipinnate. The flowers are yellow, with four petals, growing in large terminal panicles of about 20-40cm long. The fruit is a three-part inflated bladder like pod of about 3-6cm long and 2-4cm wide. Young fruit is green, then become orange and then after fully ripening in autumn. It contains several dark brown to black seeds of about 5 to8mm diameters.

Distribution :

This plant is a flowering plant, and it is native to eastern Asia (China, Pakistan, and India) and Korea. It was introduced in Europe in 1747 and to America in 1763 and has become a popular landscape tree worldwide. Suitable soil for this plant to grow is sandy, loamy) and clay soils and it can also grow in nutritionally poor soil. It favours dry or moist soil. The plant can tolerate strong winds but not maritime exposure. It can also tolerate atmospheric pollution.

 

Uses :

This plant has many uses including edible and medicinal uses. The fruit is roasted and eaten, shoot and leaves can be eaten after proper cooking. The flowers are ophthalmic; they can be used for the treatment of epiphora and conjunctivitis. The plant is also used in agroforestry; the flowers provide good forage for bees. This plant is also used to obtain dyes. Yellow dye is obtained from the flowers and black dye is obtained from leaves. The seeds of the fruits are traditionally used as beads inn necklaces.

 

 

(Rehman et al., 2001)