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Dillenia indica
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Family:
DILLENIACEAE
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Citation: Dillenia indica L., Sp. Pl. 535. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 36. 1872; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 7(5). 1915; Ramach. & V.J. Nair, Fl. Cannanore Dist. 36. 1988; N. C. Majumdar in B. D. Sharma et al., Fl. India 1: 155. 1993; N.P. Balakr. & G.V.S. Murthy in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 121. 2005; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 89. 2009.
Dillenia speciosa Thunb., Trans. Linn. Soc. London 1: 200. 1791.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Syalita, Chalita, Valapunna
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Chulta, Dillenia, Elephant apple, Hondapara Tree, Ma-tad
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Description:
Evergreen trees, to 25 m high, bole straight; branches spreading; bark smooth, pealing off in small thin hard scales; branchlets appressed silky hairy. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 15-75 mm long, stout, sheathing, winged, tomentose, grooved above; lamina 18.5-30 × 5-10 cm, elliptic, oblanceolate, elliptic-oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, base cuneate, acute or attenuate, apex acute or acuminate, margin serrate to dentate, glabrous above, strigose or pubescent beneath; lateral nerves many, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers bisexual, 12-15 cm across, solitary, white, terminal; pedicel 4-8 cm long, silky hairy; bracts to 5 mm long, solitary, median on pedicels, lanceolate; sepals 5, 4-6 × 3-5 cm, obovate, orbicular or elliptic, thick, fleshy; petals 5, 7-9 × 5-6 cm, obovate or oblong, white, veins green; stamens many, cohering slightly at base, in 2 series, outer 13-15 mm long, inner ones 20-22 mm long, inner ones arching over the short outer ones; carpels 14-20, cohering at the axis, ovules many; styles free, 18-25 mm long, flattened, oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, spreading, white. Pseudocarps yellowish-green, globular with enclosed sepals, 10-12 cm across. Fruit an aggregate of berries, 3.5 × 1.5 cm; seeds 5, 6×4 mm, reniform, compressed, reddish, echinate with hairy margins.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
May-February
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District(s):
Kannur, Kozhikkode, Wayanad
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Evergreen forests, often grown as ornamental tree
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Distribution:
Indo-Malesia
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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):
White
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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:
Yes
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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:
-800
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Localities:
Kannoth R.F., Chandanathode
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