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Durio zibethinus
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Family:
BOMBACACEAE
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Citation: Durio zibethinus Murray, Syst. Nat. Veg. (ed. 13) 581. 1774; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 351. 1874; M.P. Nayar & Biswas in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 405. 1993.
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Malayalam Name(s):
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Durian, Civet fruit tree
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Description:
Tree to 20-36 m tall, the trunk straight, to 1.8 m GBH and over, the bark grey, smooth, the crown rather small, rounded-elongated. Leaves with the petiole 1.2-2.5 cm long, the upper half pulvinate, often somewhat curved to caudate; blade 8.5-20 cm long and 2.5-5.5 cm wide, narrowly elliptic, infrequently narrowly elliptic-subobovate, rounded at the base, from gradually to rather abruptly long-acuminate at the apex, with the acumen to 2 cm long and obtuse to more or less acute, subcoriaceous, the margins somewhat undulated, the upper surface deep green and somewhat shining, the lower surface olivaceous-lepidote, the scales finely fimbrillate, the costa prominent beneath, the venation otherwise nearly inconspicuous. Flowers with the pedicels thick and 1.5-1.8 cm long; epicalyx short-tubular, 1-1.2 cm long, densely tawny-lepidote without, cinereous-stellate- puberulous within; calyx oblong-tubular, 2.5-3 cm long and 6-9 mm in diam., scarcely swollen and rounded at the base, the apex 5-dentate with the teeth to 2 mm long, densely covered with finely fimbrillate tawny scales to 2 mm in diam. without, the lower 2/3 very densely whitish-lepidote and the upper 1/3 brownish, glabrous and shining within; staminal tube white at the base and at the apex, reddish in the middle, longer than the calyx, to 3.5 cm long, the upper part finely and minutely stellate-arachnoid, the apex 5-dentate-lobulate, the lobes c. 2-3 mm long, with 7-9 stamens along their margins; stamens with the filaments to 1 mm long, the connectives c. 1-1.2 mm in diam., the thecae c. 0.4 mm in diam., the stalks c. 0.2-0.6 mm long; ovary densely white-lepidote, the cells 2-ovulate; style long-exserted, to 4 cm long, white-arachnoid, the hairs short and fine, the stigma orange, to 2.3 mm in diam. Capsule globular, to 10 cm in diam.(spines included), completely dehiscent on the tree, the spines conical, 6-15 mm long, covered with brownish scales, the pericarp(without spines) c.12 mm thick, snow-white inside; seeds 1-5, chestnut-like, to 3.8 cm long and 2.3 cm thick, completely surrounded with an orange brown aril, the latter laciniate at the apex, the testa brown and shining.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-June
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District(s):
Kannur, Idukki
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Occasionally grown for the edible fruits
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Distribution:
Cultivated in India, Native of Malay Peninsula; introduced elsewhere
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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):
Creamy
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
Yes
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
Yes
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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:
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