Sterculia quinqueloba.
The Large-leaved star-chestnut or Five-lobed sterculia.
Deciduous trees up to 25 – 30 m high.
The trunk is cylindrical with smooth creamy-pink to brown bark.
The first branches are over 4 m up the trunk.
The leaves are clustered at the ends of the branches.
Up to around 40 cm long and wide they have 5 pointed lobes.
The upper surface has a few stellate hairs on the midvein.
The lower surface is pale with raised, pale veins.
There are dense, white stellate hairs especially on the veins.
Inflorescences, near the branch ends, are profuse and can almost cover the leaves.
Each branched cluster has many small, yellow-green flowers.
Male and female flowers are on the same tree.
The flower stalk and calyx are each about 4 mm long.
There are no petals but 5 sepals with their bases fused into an urn-shaped calyx.
The tips of the lobes are free.
There are stellate, white hairs on the flower stalks and both sepal surfaces.
In male flowers the stamen filaments are fused into a column.
The anthers are in a globular head.
There are no rudimentary carpels.
Female flowers have 5 separate, hairy carpels.
Each carpel can develop into a follicle.
The follicles, with black seeds, are lined with hairs.
J.F.
