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Sea almond (Terminalia catappa)

Ketapang or tropical almond or beach almond or talisay tree or umbrella tree or sea almond (Terminalia catappa) is a species of plant in the Combretaceae, a shady tree, fast growing, forming a multilevel canopy, often used as a shade tree in gardens and on roadsides.

T. catappa grows large, up to 40 meters in height and up to 1.5 meters in trunk, shady canopy with branches that grow flat and terraced, young trees often look like pagodas while old and large trees often have aerial roots up to 3 meters.

Dlium Sea almond (Terminalia catappa)


The leaves are scattered, mostly at the end of the twig, rounded egg upside down, 8-38 cm long, 5-19 cm wide, the tip is wide, the base is narrow, the upper surface is smooth, green but turns red if to fall out and short stalks.

The flowers are small, collected near the tips of the twigs, 8-25 cm long and green-yellow in color. The flowers are not crowned, the petals have five taju, are plate or bell shaped, 4-8 mm long and are white or cream in color. Stamens in two circles and arranged in five-five.

The fruit is ovoid, slightly flattened, sides or narrow wings, 2.5-7 cm long, 4-5.5 cm wide, green or yellow or red in color, reddish purple when ripe and black when dry. The fruit has a layer of cork that can float in the water for months.

Sea almond grows with coastal and lowland climates up to an altitude of 1000 meters, rainfall of 1,000-3,500 mm/year and a dry season of up to 6 months. The tree sheds its leaves up to twice a year which can withstand the dry months.





The bark and leaves are used for tanning the skin and for making ink. Pepagan produces yellow, brown and olive dyes, containing 11-23% tannins, while the leaves contain 12 kinds of tannins that can be hydrolyzed.

The wood is pale red to brownish in color, has a BJ 0.465-0.675 which is hard and resilient but not very durable. The wood in commerce was known as red-brown terminalia and was used as a floor covering or veneer, boats and spices.

The seeds are eaten raw or cooked and used as a substitute for almond seeds in pastries. The sun-dried kernel produces a yellow oil and contains fatty acids including palmitic acid (55.5%), oleic acid (23.3%), linoleic acid, stearic acid and myristic acid. These dried seeds also contain protein (25%), sugar (16%) and various amino acids.
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales
Family: Combretaceae
Genus: Terminalia
Species: Terminalia catappa

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