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Garcinia indica
Also called Goa Butter, Kokam, Kokum, Indian Gamboge
Kokum (Garcinia indica) is a fruit-bearing evergreen tree native to the Western Ghats and coastal Konkan of India, valued for its sour rind used in cooking and for kokum butter. It needs a warm, humid tropical climate with a pronounced rainy season, and it is grown mainly outdoors rather than as a houseplant.
Garcinia indica, a plant in the mangosteen family (Clusiaceae), commonly known as kokum, is a fruit-bearing tree that has culinary, pharmaceutical, and industrial uses. It grows primarily in India's Western Ghats: in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. It is considered as an endemic species to the Western Ghats and forests in India. It grows in coastal and foothill moist forests up to 1,000 metres elevation with more than 2,500 mm of average annual rainfall. It favors lateritic alluvial soils with a depth of one or more metres and pH of 6.7.
The species was first described as Brindonia indica by Louis Marie Aubert du Petit Thouars in 1806. In 1823 Jacques Denys Choisy placed the species in genus Garcinia as G. indica.
Garcinia indica is indigenous to the tropical forest regions of India. Of the 35 Garcinia species found in India, 17 are endemic. Of these, seven are endemic to the Western Ghats, six in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and four in the northeastern region of India. The Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri Kokum variety from the Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts from the coastal Konkan region of the state of Maharashtra in India has received the GI (Geographical Indication) tag.
Garcinia assamica · Garcinia atroviridis · Indian Gamboge Tree · Garcinia celebica · Brindal Berry · Gourka · Garcinia forbesii · Achacha · Malabar Tamarind · Hanbury's garcinia · Wild Mammee · Garcinia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Garcinia indica 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.
