(Dennst.) Mabb.
Description
Wrightia arborea is a small deciduous tree of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, distributed across India, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and much of the surrounding region, with about 709 georeferenced occurrences in GBIF. It grows in dry to moist deciduous forest, woodland and scrub, mainly in the warm subtropical lowlands and foothills. The trees illustrated were photographed at Trithangebe in Bhutan (700 m) and along the Sabha-Khola in Nepal (550 m) in May; across its range it typically occurs below about 1200 m on a variety of well-drained soils.
The species is a small tree exuding milky latex, with opposite, simple, elliptic to ovate leaves that are softly hairy, acuminate and pinnately veined. The flowers are borne in terminal cymes and are showy and fragrant, with a salverform white to creamy or pale yellow corolla ageing to pink or dull orange; a conspicuous fringed corona of scales surrounds the throat, a diagnostic feature of the genus. The fruit consists of two slender, elongate follicles that are united or cohering at the tip and split to release numerous flattened seeds, each bearing an apical tuft of silky hairs (coma) for wind dispersal.
Wrightia (Apocynaceae, subfamily Apocynoideae) is a genus of latex-bearing trees and shrubs notable for the ornate coronal scales of its flowers. W. arborea yields a fine, close-grained pale wood traditionally prized for carving and turnery, and various parts have been used in folk medicine and as a source of dye. Adaptable and widely distributed, the species is common across its range and is not considered to be of conservation concern, though local populations depend on the persistence of deciduous forest and woodland habitat.
Author: (Dennst.) Mabb. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of British India, Flora of Bhutan, Ngan Revision of the Genus Wrightia