Botanical name: Garcinia indica Family: Clusiaceae (St John's Wort family)
Synonyms: Brindonia indica
Kokum is a tree with a dense canopy of green leaves and red-tinged tender emerging leaves. It is indigenous to the Western Ghats region of India, along the western coast. The tree is large and handsome, having elliptic, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, deep-green glossy leaves, 5.5-8 cm long and 2.5-3 cm broad. The flowers are fleshy, dark pink, solitary or in spreading cluster. The fruit is brownish or brownish-gray, marbled with yellow, and is crowned by the 4-parted, stalkless stigma. There are from 6 to 8 seeds, and the pulp is juicy, white, and delicious in taste and odor. It is about the size of an orange. An average kokum tree bears hundreds of fruits during summer. When they are tender, they are green in color. As they ripen, they get the beautiful purple color. The fruits are plucked when they are ripe. The tree is a source of kokam butter which is used in cosmetics and confectionary. Flowering: November-February.
Identification credit: Vandan Jhaveri
The flower labeled Kokam is ...