Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Rubber Bush, Apple of Sodom, French Cotton

Hindi Name : आक | Scientific Name : Calotropis procera
Family : Apocynaceae
Uses : It is a multipurpose tree. The stems yield a fibre useful for making ropes, bags, nets and paper. The seeds contain white silky floss that is a potential silk replacer. The wood is valuable as a timber and fuel. The milky sap (latex) is renowned for its ethno-medicinal properties and as a food, particularly as a coagulation agent for cheese making in West Africa. Calotropis yields 90 tonnes of biomass twice a year and is a potential source of renewable energy. It is also used as fodder. Young pods, senescing leaves and flowers can be fed to goats, camels, and sheep (more rarely to cattle) in times of scarcity. The latex contains toxic components that may be harmful to livestock.
Native: Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Western Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and Indo-China
General Description:

It is a spreading shrub or medium-sized tree reaching 2.5 to 6m in height. It has a deep taproot, 3-4m deep, and a secondary root system with woody lateral roots that may rapidly regenerate adventitious shoots when the plant is injured. The stems are crooked and covered with a fissured corky bark. The grey-green leaves are 15-30cm long and 2.5-10cm broad and have a succulent and waxy appearance, hence the name procera, which means wax in latin. The flowers are pentamerous, small, cream or greenish white at the base and purple violet at the extremity of the lobes. The fruit is a fleshy and inflated, up to 10cm or more in diameter.