| |
Sterculia foetida
|
| |
|
| |
Family:
STERCULIACEAE
|
| |
Citation: Sterculia foetida L., Sp. Pl. 1008. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 354. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 105(75). 1915; K.C. Malick in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 459. 1993; M. Mohanan & Henry, Fl. Thiruvanthapuram 87. 1994; Sasidh., Fl. Chinnar WLS 42. 1999; V. Chithra in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 472. 2005; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 139. 2009; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 166. 2009.
|
| |
Malayalam Name(s):
Kavalam, Peenari, Poothimanathi, Poothiyunarthi, Pottakavalam
|
| |
Tamil name(s):
|
| |
English name(s):
Indian Almond, Java Olive, Skunk Tree
|
| |
Description:
Deciduous trees, to 25 m high, bole buttressed; bark grey, smooth, irregularly flaking off in thin scales; blaze reddish-yellow; branches horizontal, whorled. Leaves palmately compound, alternate, clustered at the end of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, deciduous; rachis 8-24 cm long, slender, glabrous, swollen at base; leaflets 3-9; petiolule to 3 mm; lamina 5.5-14 x 2-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic oblanceolate, base cuneate, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-24, parallel, close, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, prominent. Flowers unisexual or polygamous, dull-orange red, in axillary or terminal racemes, foetid smell; calyx dull orange red, deeply 5-partite, glabrous out side, woolly inside; petals absent; male flowers: staminal column curved, hairy at base, bearing 10-15 anthers at its tip; female flowers: ovary 5, free, superior, downy, each with 20 ovules, gynophore stout; styles deflexed, hairy; staminodes subsessile in a ring beneath the carpels. Fruit an aggregate of follicle of 1-5, scarlet, boat shaped, 5-lobed, woody, glabrous; seeds black, numerous, ellipsoid, smooth, with a small yellow aril.
|
| |
Habit:
Tree
|
| |
Flowering & Fruiting:
February-August
|
| |
District(s):
Alappuzha, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Wayanad
|
| |
Medicinal:
|
| |
Habitat:
Moist deciduous forests and in the plains along coastal areas
|
| |
Distribution:
Pantropical
|
| |
Aquatic:
No
|
| |
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
| |
Saprophyte:
No
|
| |
Stem parasite:
No
|
| |
Root parasite:
No
|
| |
Flower colour(s):
Red, Orange
|
| |
Weed:
No
|
| |
Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
|
| |
Exotic:
No
|
| |
Garden:
No
|
| |
Edible:
No
|
| |
Vegetable:
No
|
| |
Endemic to:
|
| |
IUCN status:
|
| |
Altitude:
|
| |
Localities:
Churullipetty, Aroor, Pooyamkutty
|