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Sterculia villosa
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Family:
STERCULIACEAE
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Citation: Sterculia villosa Roxb. ex Smith in Rees, Cyclop. 36: n.16. 1816; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 355. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 106(76). 1915; K.C. Malick in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 472. 1993; M. Mohanan & Henry, Fl. Thiruvanthapuram 88. 1994; Sasidh. et al., Bot. Stud. Med. Pl. Kerala 12. 1996; Sasidh. & Sivar., Fl. Pl. Thrissur For. 70. 1996; Sasidh., Fl. Periyar Tiger Reserve 38. 1998; Sasidh., Fl. Parambikulam WLS 35. 2002; Mohanan & Sivad., Fl. Agasthyamala 112. 2002; V. Chithra in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 474. 2005; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 167. 2009.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Vakka, Vakkanarumaram
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Elephant rope tree
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Description:
Deciduous trees, to 10 m high, bark pale-brown, smooth with small corky warts; branches horizontal and whorled. Leaves simple, palmately 5-7 lobed, alternate, crowded at the end of branchlets, 6.5-45 x 9-45 cm, lobes oblong-ovate or ovate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base cordate, margin entire, glabrous above and downy beneath, coriaceous; 5-7-ribbed from the base, palmate, prominent, lateral nerves 4-8, parallel, prominent, intercostae subscalariform-reticulate, prominent; petioles 7-25 cm long, stout, swollen at base, pubescent; stipules free, lateral, cauducous. Flowers polygamous, cream-coloured, 10-12 mm across, in long drooping panicles. Calyx campanulate, pink, downy outside, glabrous within, divided to the middle, lobes 5, oblong-lanceolate, acute. Petals absent. Male flowers: staminal column recurved; anthers 10, along the rim of staminal column, column hairy at apex; female flowers; carpels 5, free, strigose with stellate hairs; gynophore stout, cylindric; style stout, hairy, deflexed; staminodes on a ring beneath the ovary. Fruit an aggregate of 2-7 follicles, each 3.5-7.5 cm long, brown, tomentose; seeds many, black, smooth.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-April
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District(s):
Palakkad, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Wayanad, Kannur
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Moist deciduous forests
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Distribution:
South Asia and Myanmar
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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:
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:
500-800
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Localities:
Peechi, Pezha, Karamanayar region
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