Protium serratum

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The ripe fruit are eaten raw or used for pickles, though they are sour or acidic.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It mostly grows between 200 to 1000 m altitude in North Vietnam. It is usually along river banks. It is more common on deep sandy or loamy soil. It grows in moist forests. In Yunnan.

Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Laos, Myanmar, Northeastern India, SE Asia, Thailand, Vietnam,

How to Identify

A medium sized tree. It can lose its leaves during the year. It grows to 20-30 m tall. The trunk can be 30-40 cm across. The crown of the tree in large and round. The leaves are feather like and compound. There are 5-9 leaflets that are pointy at the tip. The bases are unequal. There can be teeth along the edge. The leaves turn red before falling off. The flowers are small and green. They are in short branching clusters. There are 4-5 petals. The fruit are on thick stalks. The fruit are almost round and 2-3 cm across. They are red or bright pink when ripe. The fruit are sour-sweet and edible.

How to Grow

Most, if not all, species in this genus are dioecious, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required.

Medicinal Uses

The fruits are used in the treatment of mouth ulcers.

Other Uses

We have no specific information for this species, but many members of this genus are valued for the whitish and fragrant resin (suggesting incense) that exudes freely from the bark, and which hardens upon exposure to the air. The heartwood is red; the sapwood is light brown. The wood is close-grained, hard. A useful wood, good for making furniture, and also used for house posts, boards etc. We have no more information on the wood of this species, but a general description of the wood for tropical American members of this genus is as follows:- The heartwood is brown or reddish-brown, sometimes with irregularly spaced darker brown lines; it is not always sharply demarcated from the pale buff to pinkish sapwood. The texture varies from rather fine to fairly coarse; grain straight to very irregular and interlocked; lustre is rather high; dry specimens are without any distinctive odour or taste. Silica is reported for some species. The wood is generally reported to have a low resistance to attack by decay fungi and is vulnerable to dry-wood termites; it has no appreciable resistance to marine borers. Reports on seasoning vary from fairly easy to air dry to moderately difficult. Logs should be debarked prior to sawing to avoid resin accumulation on cutters and equipment. The dry wood works easily and rates fair to good in all operations; it cuts easily into veneers but tends to buckle on drying; some species are abrasive because of the silica content. The wood is used for purposes such as furniture, millwork, veneer and plywood, general construction, particleboard; it is a possible substitute for birch.

Protium serratum is a small-medium tree species in the genus Protium and the family Burseraceae. It is commonly known as Indian red pear, Thaicherem, Dieng sohmir, Mir Tenga, Gulgutia, and Limbura in the Indian subcontinent region. The Catalogue of Life does not record any subspecies. Its distribution is: Bhutan, China (Yunnan), Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Production

In India fruit are available March to June.

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