Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Synonyms
Family
Food - The seed is usually cooked before eating, though it can also be eaten raw. Medicine - Externally, it is used as a mouthwash to treat toothache or gum problems and is applied topically as a wash on cuts, burns, various skin problems, haemorrhoids and oral, genital and anal mucosa inflammation.
Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal
Moist forests and ravines, not gregarious at altitudes of 800-3000 m asl.
“Glaucous” refers to the bluish-grey colour of the leaves. Multiple parts of the tree are mildly toxic to humans when ingested.
Evergreen tree with a dense, round or oval crown; it can grow up to 15 m tall.
Stem woody and upright, with a straight cylindrical bole. Branches typically grow in a widely spreading pattern, forming a rounded or oval crown.
Leaves are ovate to elliptic-lanceshaped, 7-16 x 2.4-6 cm, not leathery entire or toothed, long pointed, dull green above, whitish velvety on the underside, nerve pairs 10-14, base often oblique. Leaf stalks is 1.4-2.3 mm long.
Male catkins are 3.5-6 cm long, in clusters, velvety; bracts prominent, 3-4 mm long, fringed with hairs and velvet-hairy. Petals are lanceshaped, about the size of the filaments, unequal, velvet-hairy; stamens 10-14; filaments 1 mm long, anthers slightly shorter, hairless. Female flowers are on short flower-cluster-stalks up to l.5 cm long; styles 3, recurved.
Acorn is ovoid, l.8 cm long, becoming hairless.
Flowering: March-April