This name was given to this genus because of the foul-smelling flowers and leaves of some Sterculia species.

It produces flowers in short dense panicles which occur at the ends of the branches.

The flower tube is 13 mm long, tubular at the base and lobed at the tip.

From the centre of the calyx tube, a staminal column protrudes bearing at its summit 30 anthers.

Scarlet sterculia is common in the forests of the Western Ghats and the Deccan of the Indian subcontinent.