Kadam
Anthocephalus chinensis
- Habit
- Tree
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- November-July
How to identify Kadam
Identify Kadam by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a tree habit.
- Confirm leaf surface: Glabrous (smooth, hairless).
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- Confirm fruit type: Capsule.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: November-July.
- In India, compare location records such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Rubiaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Kadam.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Anthocephalus chinensis
- Genus
- Anthocephalus
- Family
- Rubiaceae
- Habit
- Tree
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Myanmar, Borneo
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Meghalaya, Telangana, Rajasthan, Assam, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Mizoram, Bihar, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Puducherry, Delhi, Tripura, Haryana, Jharkhand, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Chandigarh
- Flowering & fruiting
- November-July
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf surface
- Glabrous (smooth, hairless)recorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Opposite
Characters marked “recorded” are for Kadam itself; the rest are typical of the Rubiaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
- Fruit type
- CapsulerecordedA dry fruit from a fused ovary that splits open at maturity to release seeds.“cadamba occur in small, fleshy capsules packed closely together to form a fleshy yellow-orange infructescence containing approximately 8000 seeds.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Berry
Characters marked “recorded” are for Kadam itself; the rest are typical of the Rubiaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Tamil
- காஃபி குடும்பம்
- Telugu
- రూబియేసి
- Malayalam
- റുബിയേസീ
About Kadam
Kadam (Anthocephalus chinensis) is a tree in the Rubiaceae family. In India it has been recorded in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and 32 other states. Flowering and fruiting run from November to July.
Uses
Locally it is grown for parts that are eaten, cut for timber and furniture and planted as an ornamental.
In culture
It is treated as sacred and appears in worship and turns up in ritual and festival use.
Rubiaceae
Coffee/Madder family
Kadam belongs to the Rubiaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Rubiaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Kadam or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides