Pterospermum
(from pteron, a wing, and sperma, a seed; referring to the seeds being winged). SYN. Velaga. ORD. Sterculiaceae. A genus comprising about fourteen species of stove, scaly or stellate-tomentose trees or shrubs, natives of tropical Asia. Flowers often elongated, sometimes several inches long; calyx tubular, five-cut or parted, deciduous; petals five, obovate, oblong, or linear, deciduous; peduncles axillary, short, one or few-flowered. Leaves coriaceous, often oblique, entire or the uppermost ones angularly toothed, penninerved, and three to seven-nerved at the base. The species best known to cultivation are those described below. They thrive in a compost of sandy, fibry loam and lumpy peat; and perfect drainage is most essential. Propagated by cuttings of half-ripened side shoots, cut close to the stem, and inserted in sand, in bottom heat.
P. acerifolium (Maple-leaved). fl. white; pedicels shorter than the petioles. July to September. l. broad, peltately-cordate, obtuse, with a short acumen, toothed, tomentose beneath, upper surface white, clothed with stellate hairs. East Indies, 1790. A large tree. This species thrives well under greenhouse treatment. (B. M. 620.) P. suberifolium (Cork-tree-leaved). fl. white, axillary, solitary, twin or tern at the tops of the branches; pedicels hardly the length of the petioles, crowded. l. oblong, acuminate, obliquely cordate at the base, coarsely toothed at the apex, tomentose beneath. East Indies, 1783. A small tree. (B. M. 1526.) SYN. Pentapetes suberifolia.