| |
Limonia acidissima
|
| |
|
| |
Family:
RUTACEAE
|
| |
Citation: Limonia acidissima L., Sp. Pl. (ed. 2) 554. 1762; Antony, Syst. Stud. Fl. Kottayam Dist. 95. 1989; K.N. Nair & M.P. Nayar in Hajra et al., Fl. India 4: 294. 1997; R.K. Premanath in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 600. 2005; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 195. 2009.
Feronia elephantum Correa, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 5: 224. 1800; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 516. 1875; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 160(114). 1915.
Feronia limonia (L.) Swingle, J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 4: 328. 1914.
|
| |
Malayalam Name(s):
Vilankai, Vilarmaram, Vilavu
|
| |
Tamil name(s):
|
| |
English name(s):
Elephant apple, Wood apple, Curd fruit, Monkey fruit
|
| |
Description:
Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bark dark-grey or black, deeply cracked longitudinally; thorns straight, to 2.5 cm, axillary. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, 1-3 in a cluster, estipulate; rachis 60-80 mm long, stout, glabrous, often narrowly winged; leaflets 4-7, opposite, sessile, estipellate; lamina 1.3-3.8 × 1.3 cm, obovate, base cuneate or acute, apex obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, pellucid-punctate, coriaceous; lateral nerves pinnate, obscure, intercostae obscure. Flowers polygamous, dull red, 1.3 cm across, in axillary cymes; calyx small, flat, 5-toothed, pubescent with out, deciduous; petals 5, free, spreading; stamens 10-12, inserted round the disc; filaments dilated below, villous on face and margins; anthers linear-oblong; disc thick, annular, pubescent; pistillode short; ovary superior, oblong, 5-6-celled, at length 1-celled, ovules many; stigma oblong, fusiform. Fruit a berry, 5-7.6 cm across, globose, whitish-brown, rind hard and woody; seeds many.
|
| |
Habit:
Tree
|
| |
Flowering & Fruiting:
December-June
|
| |
District(s):
Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Thrissur, Wayanad, Ernakulam
|
| |
Medicinal:
Yes
|
| |
Habitat:
Dry deciduous forests, also grown in homesteads
|
| |
Distribution:
Indo-Malesia
|
| |
Aquatic:
No
|
| |
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
| |
Saprophyte:
No
|
| |
Stem parasite:
No
|
| |
Root parasite:
No
|
| |
Flower colour(s):
Red, Yellow
|
| |
Weed:
No
|
| |
Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
|
| |
Exotic:
No
|
| |
Garden:
No
|
| |
Edible:
No
|
| |
Vegetable:
No
|
| |
Endemic to:
|
| |
IUCN status:
|
| |
Altitude:
|
| |
Localities:
|