English: Mysore Gamboge.
Genus: 400 species.
Region: east Asia, southern China, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Thailand to Indo-China.
Habitat: dense humid forests of valleys or on hills; elevations of 600 - 1,000 metres; hot, humid tropics; tolerant of shade; well-drained soils, poor soils, soils with a high pH.
Content: seeds yield up to 17% oil.
Use: fruit, raw or cooked for food, breakfast, sherbets, jams, curries, vinegars, flavouring; dyestuff; gamboge, a gum-resin, yellow dye, for illuminant, in varnishes, water colours, dyeing robes of Buddhist priests; fruit juice as a dye.
BotanyEvergreen tree; horizontal branches; dense pyramidal crown; 8 - 15 metres tall.
Stem: short, straight.
Flowers: flowering after dry weather.
Fruit: berry, yellow, globose or ovoid, sometimes oblique, 3 - 5 cm in diameter, rather sour; aromatic, pleasant, acid taste; richin citric acid.