Mallotus philippensis

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Common Names: Kamala, Monkey Face Tree,

References: Stuartxchange,Co’s Digital Flora of the Philippines (facebook group) (note: thank you to Bonifacio Pasion for the ID)

Origin: native to China, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia

• The granules which cover the ripe fruit are used in India as a dye (‘kamala’) for dyeing silk and wool bright orange, although is now rarely used as a dye as it is much too expensive to compete with synthetic dyes (from florabank)
• mallotus means “fleecy”, referring to the seed capsule (from flickr)
• In Ayurveda it is a important drug, used in many diseases as a strong Purgative (from flickr)
• This is the small tree near our future “office”
• Fruit is somewhat spherical, 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter, unarmed but densely covered with red or crimson powder, with three cells, each containing a dark grey, rounded seed that is flattened on one side.on in thickets and secondary forests at low altitudes.
• NOTE: I will take more pictures of the fruit to confirm the ID

trees and shrubs

UPDATE:

Here are pictures of the ripe seeds that confirm the ID

I wrote about this tree and posted more pictures in A Favorite Tree.