''Sterculia villosa'', the hairy sterculia, or elephant rope tree, known vernacularly as Sardol, Udal, or Udar in

Northeast India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

, is a medium-sized,

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

tree. A leaf from this plant is characterized by a petiole about 25–40 cm long and by a

lamina Lamina may refer to: Science and technology * Planar lamina, a two-dimensional planar closed surface with mass and density, in mathematics * Laminar flow, (or streamline flow) occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption betwee ...

composed of 5-7-lobes, approximately 20–40 cm long and wide. The leaves are

glabrescent Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

on the top but

tomentose Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

on the bottom. The elephant rope tree's

panicles A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are o ...

are about 15–30 cm long, rusty in color and pendulous. Its flowers are unisexual and have

pedicels In botany, a pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as ''pedicellate''. Description Pedicel refers to a structure connecting a single flower to its inflorescence. In the absenc ...

about 4–8 mm long and thread-like

bracteoles In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

; the flowers are easily detached and tend to be shed at an early stage. Its seeds are oblong, smooth, and black. It is distributed throughout

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

, although it is cultivated elsewhere due to its fast-spreading nature. ''Sterculia villosa'' possesses certain paper-making characteristics. In Northeast India and Bangladesh, the plant's pulp is generally used for making tea boxes and light-weight packing cases, apart from use as fire-wood in certain rural areas.

References

villosa ''Villosa'' is a genus of freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve molluscs in the family Unionidae The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simp ...

{{Sterculioideae-stub