Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Nile Trumpet, Siala Tree

Hindi Name : मरखामिया | Scientific Name : Markhamia lutea
Family : Bignoniaceae
Uses : Trees are a source of firewood and produce good charcoal. Fuelwood is used to cure tobacco in western Kenya. The wood, which is fairly resistant to termites, is used for furniture, poles, posts, tool handles and boat building. It provides good bee forage. Leaves are known to have medicinal value. Leaves and bark are used to treat toothache, stomach-ache and headache. Roots are administered to children to treat convulsions, and root and bark decoctions are taken against asthma, cough and gonorrhoea. Root decoctions are applied to treat earache and bark decoctions as aphrodisiac. Ground leaves and bark are applied externally to treat skin complaints and wounds. Leaves are used for the treatment of snakebites and young shoots to treat throat complaints, lumbago and diarrhoea. Leaf extracts are taken to treat cough and malaria. It is recommended for use in soil-conservation. The species provides useful shade and acts as a windbreak. It provides mulch, which enhances soil-moisture retention and increases organic matter. Attractive and worth planting as a screen or background tree for gardens and on golf courses.
Native: Africa
General Description:

It was named in the honour of botanist C. Robert Markham (1830-1916), who worked in India. It is an upright evergreen tree 10-15m high, with a narrow, irregular crown and long taproot. Bark light brown with fine vertical fissures. Leaves compound, often in bunches, thin and wavy, each leaflet up to 10cm, wider at the tip, often with round outgrowths at the base. Flower buds yellow-green and furry, splitting down 1 side as flower emerges. Flowers bright yellow, in showy terminal clusters, each trumpet shaped, to 6cm long, with 5 frilly lobes, the throat striped with orange-red. Fruit very long, thin, brown capsules, to 75cm in length, hanging in clusters and tending to spiral, splitting on the tree to release abundant seed with transparent wings, 2.5cm long and yellow-whitish when mature.