English: Guest tree.
Synonym:
Kleinhovia hospitata; Kleinhovia serrata.
Genus: 1 species.
Region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Asia. It is monotypic.
Habitat: tropical.
Content: cyanogenic compounds; fatty acids with a cyclopropenylic ring, scopoletin, kaempferol, quercetin; ornamental.
Use: hairwash for lice; eyewash; young leaves as a vegetable; bast fibres for making ropes, tying or for tethering livestock;
BotanyTree; evergreen; bushy; up to 20 m high; dense rounded crown.
Stem: wood pinkish buff, moderately fine in texture, soft, light, easy to season, work and finish, with energy value about 19000 kJ/kg.
Leaves: simple; alternate; stipules are ensiform to linear, about 8 mm long; petioles are 2 to 30 cm long; the leaf-blade is ovate to heart-shaped, glabrous on both sides, with the apex pointed; secondary veins occur in 6-8 pairs, palmately nerved.
Inflorescence: upright sprays of flowers and fruits.
Flowers: terminal, in loose panicles protruding from the crown; ± 5 mm wide; pale pink; pedicels are 2 to 10 mm long; bracteoles are lanceolate, 2 to 4 mm long, pubescent; gynandrophores are 4 to 7 mm long, pubescent; there are 5 sepals, linear lanceolate, 6 to 8 mm long, pink, tomentose; 5 petals, inconspicuous, the upper one being yellow; 15 stamens, monaldelphous, 8 to 15 mm long, staminal tube broadly campanulate, adanate to gynandrophore, 5-lobed, each lobe having 3 anthers and alternating with staminodes; the anthers are sessile and extrorse; pistil occur with a 5-celled, pilose ovary, one style and a capitate, with a 5-lobed stigma. K. hospita flowers throughout the year.
Fruit: rounded; 5-lobed; thin-walled; membranous capsules, ± 2 cm in diameter; loculicidally dehiscent, each locule having 1–2 seeds.
Seeds: globose; whitish; warty; exalbuminous; more conspicuous, abundant and big than the flowers.