Wrightia coccinea (Lodd.) Sims

A small deciduous tree, bark light brown, shoots white shining. Leaves 7.5-12.5 x 5-7 cm, elliptic, to ovate-obovate, apex acuminate, margin entire, base acute, membranous with 6-12 pairs of lateral nerves, petiole 3-4 mm long . Inflorescence few flowered cyme. Calyx c. 6 mm long, rounded, ± equal to the corolla tube. Corolla thickened, coriaceous, lobes rounded, corona scales crimson, rounded, crenulate. Anthers hairy at the back, large and united. Carpels 2, free. Style filiform; stigma ovoid. Follicle linear, pendulous, straight, 15-17.5 x 2.5-7.5 cm, deeply grooved at the junction of the carpel.

Trees to 20 m tall. Bark pale gray to brownish; branchlets lenticellate, glabrous. Petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade elliptic to ovate, 5-17 X 3-8 cm, glabrous or puberulent along veins abaxially, base obtuse to acute, apex caudate-acuminate; lateral veins 8-14 pairs. Flowers solitary or in cymes, 2-3.5 cm. Sepals broadly ovate, 5-9 mm. Corolla reddish, funnelform; tube campanulate, shorter than calyx; lobes broadly obovate, papillate; corona crimson, cup-shaped, apex incised. Anthers exserted. Ovaries connate. Follicles linear, connate, 14-20 cm, conspicuously lenticellate. Seeds linear, ca. 2 cm, coma to 4 cm. Fl. Jan-May, fr. Jun-Dec. 2n = 22.

Distribution: Bangladesh, S.W. China India, cultivated occassionally in Lahore.

SE Guangxi, S Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand].

Fl. Per.: August-September.

Dense montane forests; 300-1800 m.

Nerium coccineum Loddiges, Bot. Cab. 9: t. 894. 1824.