Garcinia gummi-gutta
(L.) N. Robson in Brittonia 20: 103. 1968. Cambogia
gummigutta L., Gen. Pl. ed. 5: 522. 1754. G. cambogia (Gaertn.) Desr. in Lam., Encycl.
3: 701. 1792; T. Anderson in Fl. Brit. India 1: 261.1874. Mangostana cambogia Gaertn.,
Fruct. Sem. Pl. 2: 106. 1790.
Trees, up to 20 m tall with round canopy; wood grey, shiny, hard, smooth; bark grey or dark brown, rugose, exudes yellow gum; branchlets horizontal or drooping, glabrous. Leaves 7 - 15 x 2 - 7 cm, oblong, elliptic or lanceolate, cuneate at base, contracted into petioles, acute to obtusely short acuminate at apex, entire, glossy dark green; lateral veins indefinite 5 - 6 mm apart slender, prominent, oblique, reticulate; petioles 5 - 12, rarely 20 mm long, stout, channelled. Male flowers: 3 - 5 in short, axillary lascicles, ca 12 mm in diam., white, pale white or pale green; pedicels 7 - 15 mm long, thickened towards tip, often reflexed. Sepals 4, ovate or obovate, unequal, outer pair 5 - 6 mm, inner 7 - 8 mm, coriaceous, margin membranous, fleshy. Petals 4, 8 - 10 mm long, obovate or oblong, concave, margin membranous. Stamens 12 - 20 or more inserted on a prominent receptacle, forming a globular head; filaments ca 0.5 mm long; anthers ca 0.5 mm long, bilocular, basifixed, apices obtuse, dehiscing vertically. Rudimentary pistil absent or minute; stigmatic lobes 3 - 4, short, yellow. Bisexual flowers: 1 - 3 in terminal and axillary fascicles, larger than male flowers, 1 - 1.5 cm across; pedicels 4 - 6 mm long. Sepals and petals similar to those of male flowers. Stamens 10 - 20; filaments unequal, connate at base in a ring round the ovary or grouped in unequal bundles; anthers bilocular, fertile or often a few sterile. Ovary ca 1 mm long, subglobose or ovoid, 8 - 11-sulcate, grooved; stigmatic rays spreading, free nearly to the base, margin crenate, irregularly or tuberculate. Berries sometimes up to 7 cm in diam., globose, yellow or red, (4 -)6 - 8 -grooved, smooth, 6 - 8-seeded, flat and depressed at tip, mamilla thick; pericarp fleshy. Seeds as many as grooves, ca 3 cm long, ovoid, compressed, pale brown, veined, surrounded by a succulent, white or red aril.
