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Wild Guava
Careya arborea
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.
From the article Careya arborea on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
At the table
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. The Careya arborea leaves are traditionally used to roll cheroots in Myanmar (Burma). The town of Pyay (formerly Prome) is known for a local delicacy known as taw laphet (တောလက်ဖက်; lit. 'rural laphet') or Nibbinda laphet (နိဗ္ဗိန္ဒလက်ဖက်) that is tightly packed in parcel-like Careya arborea leaves for fermentation and preservation purposes. Flowers and young leaves are eaten as salad greens in Thailand. Young fruit is reported to be edible, though seeds are slightly poisonous.
Wikipedia: “Uses”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Careya arborea in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 346363.