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Caesalpinia crista
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Family:
FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE (Subfam.: Caesalpinioideae)
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Citation: Caesalpinia crista L., Sp. Pl. 380. 1753; Mohanan, Fl. Quilon Dist. 161. 1984; Ansari, Fl. Kasaragod Div. 141. 1985; Sanjappa, Legumes Ind. 10. 1992; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 251. 2009.
Caesalpinia nuga (L.) Ait.f., Hort. Kew (ed.2) 73: 32. 1811; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 255. 1878; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 394(279). 1919; Manilal & Sivar., Fl. Calicut 98. 1982.
Guilandina nuga L., Sp. Pl. (ed. 2) 546. 1762.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Aattuparanda, Kakamullu, Manjapoovalli
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
A large, prickly, prostrate or climbing, evergreen shrub upto 20 m tall. Branchlets finely grey-downy, armed with hooked and straight hard yellow prickles. Leaves alternate, bipinnate, 30-60 cm long, pinnae usually 6-8 pairs, 5-7.5 cm long with a pair of hooked stipulary spines at the base; leaflets 6-12 pairs per pinna, 2-3.8 cm long and 1.3-2.2 cm wide, membranous, elliptic-oblong, base rounded to acute, apex mucronate, margins curved, upper surface shiny, lower dull; petioles prickly; stipules a pair of reduced pinnae at the base of each leaf, 0.5-2 cm long, each with a long mucronate point. Flowers yellow, fragrant, borne in axillary and terminal racemes 15-60 cm long; bracts squarrose, linear, acute, to 1 cm long, fulvous-hairy; calyx 6-8 mm long, lobes obovate-oblong, obtuse; petals oblanceolate, yellow. Fruits(pods) somewhat swollen, oblong, 5-7.5 cm long and c. 4.5 cm wide, prickly, dark brown to black, 1 or 2-seeded, beaked. Seeds orbicular or ovoid to reniform, black, polished, hard.
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Habit:
Climber
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Flowering & Fruiting:
March-June
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District(s):
Alappuzha, Kozhikkode, Kasaragode, Kollam
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Deciduous forests and mangrove forests
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Distribution:
Indo-Malesia to Polynesia
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
Yellow
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
No
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
Chimmini, Taliparamba, Payyanur, Perumbalam
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