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Careya arborea
Careya arborea is a deciduous tree from the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that grows up to 15 m, known for yellow or white flowers and large green berries. It is a forest and grassland tree rather than a common garden plant, so care notes here are general.
Careya arborea is a species of tree in the Lecythidaceae family, native to the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and Indochina. Its common English names include wild guava, Ceylon oak, patana oak. Careya arborea is a deciduous tree that grows up to 15 metres (49 ft) 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.
In colonial times in India, the fibrous bark of this tree was found to be an ideal substitute for beech bark as matches for matchlocks.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Careya arborea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
