Four-leaved soapnut

Lepisanthes tetraphylla

No Local Name

Mid-sized evergreen tree with a gnarled, crooked dark trunk, spreading branched and a compact round crown of dark leaved foliage. Leaves are paripinnate, usually two pairs of oppositely arranged leaflets, outer pair always larger. The leaflets are narrow oval, with a rounded tip, dark green and glossy above, pale and dull below.

Flowers: The small whitish flowers are borne in branching clusters set close to the larger branchlets and almost concealed by the dense foliage. Each flower has five overlapping sepals, and four- or five-minute concave petals, which are narrow and hairy at the base.

Fruit: The round, pale yellow fruits have thin, soft, velvety skins containing several large seeds each enclosed in white translucent pulp, the whole interior somewhat resembling mangosteen, but on a much smaller scale. The Fruit is considered edible and is much appreciated by birds and flying-foxes.

Season: The flowers appear in March and April, and the fruits ripen in May, when they are often produced in great profusion. The ground beneath the tree is then littered with the skins and seeds that have been discarded by the creatures that eat the fruits

Distribution: The tree is native to India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia.

Trivia and Notes: Benthall, in his book Trees of Calcutta and its neighbourhood (1946) writes [on where to find this tree] "A fine specimen grows in the Royal Agri-Horticultural Gardens in Alipore, and in recent years a number of young trees have been in Calcutta streets, especially in Ballygunge". I guess these latter ones we find in Rabindra Sarobar. I have found an old specimen in Agri Horticulture which, I guess might be the one Benthall referred to.

Where to find: In Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata,two trees outside padma pukur, towards Najrul mancha GPS: 22.51354, 88.36140