• Scientific Name: Pachira aquatica Aubl.
• Ref: Hist. Pl. Guiane:726. 1775
• Synonyms: Bombax aquaticum (Aubl.) K.Schum.; B. macrocarpum (Schltdl. & Cham.) K.Schum.; B. rigidifolium Ducke; Carolinea grandiflora (Tussac) Spach; C. macrocarpa Schltdl. & Cham.; Pachira grandiflora Tussac; P. macrocarpa (Schltdl. & Cham.) Walp.; P. pustulifera Pittier; P. villosula Pittier
• English Common Name: Malabar chestnut, French peanut, Guiana chestnut, Provision tree, Saba nut
• Chinese Common Name: 瓜栗 guālì, 发财树 fācái∙shù
• Japanese Common Name: カイエンナッツ kaiennattsu
• Family: Malvaceae
• Genus: Pachira
• Distribution: Cultivated. Guangdong, Taiwan, S Yunnan [native to tropical America, now cultivated and naturalized throughout the tropics].
• Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong

Small trees 4-5(-18) m tall; young branchlets brown, glabrous. Petiole 11-15 cm, ferruginous stellate tomentose; leaflets 5-11, slightly petiolulate or subsessile, leaflet blade oblong to obovate-oblong, abaxially ferruginous stellate tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acuminate; central leaflet 13-24 × 4.5-8 cm, size decreasing outward; midrib abaxially prominently raised, adaxially flat, lateral veins 16-20 per side of midrib, straight, connected near margin, veinlets thin and dense, prominently raised abaxially. Flowers solitary, axillary near twig tips. Pedicel robust, ca. 2 cm, yellow stellate tomentose, glabrescent. Calyx cup-shaped, nearly leathery, ca. 1.5 × 1.3 cm in diam., abaxially sparsely stellate pilose, adaxially glabrous, truncate or obscurely 3-6-toothed, persistent, with 2-3 globose glands at base. Petals yellowish green, narrowly lanceolate or filiform, up to 15 cm, distal half reflexed. Staminal tube short, proximally yellow, distally red, 13-15 cm including filaments; anthers 2-3 mm. Style dark red, longer than stamens; stigma minute. Capsule nearly pyriform, 9-10 × 4-6 cm, endocarp yellow-brown, thick, woody, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely long woolly. Seeds many per cell, dark brown with white spirals, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm. Fl. May-Nov. (Flora of China)

06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden

06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden