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Voacanga grandifolia
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Family:
APOCYNACEAE
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Citation: Voacanga grandifolia (Miq.) Rolfe, J. Bot. London 21: 202. 1883; M.P. Nayar, Bull. Bot. Surv. India 32: 167. 1990; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 432. 2009.
Pootia grandifolia Miq., Versel. en Meded. Kon. Akad. Wet. 6: 193. 1857.
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Malayalam Name(s):
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Dichotomously branched, laticiferous trees or shrubs, 2-6 m tall; bark greyish or yellowish, smooth. Leaves opposite, often in unequal pairs, sessile or subsessile, amplexicaule, 24-47 x 8-16 cm, broadly elliptic to oblanceolate, base rounded or auriculate, apex acute or acuminate, green above, pale below; secondary veins 15-25 pairs, raised below, glabrous except on nerves below. Inflorescence axillary, long-peduncled, erect or drooping, first branching dichotomous, further branching cymose, laxly-flowered; peduncle stout, 9-20 cm long. Flowers 5-merous; pedicels to 2.5 cm long; bracteoles to 8 mm long, ovate, deciduous. Calyx somewhat companulate, divided to middle, with many basal glands within and shedding with the corolla, 0.7-1.5 cm long; lobes 5, 4-7 mm across, suborbicular. Corolla white,5-7 cm across, rotate or salver-shaped; tube to 1.7 cm long, twisted; lobes 5, overlapping to the left in bud, 1.5-2 cm across, obovate-rounded. Stamens 5, inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube; filaments short; anthers to 5 mm long, sagittate, cohering with the stigma. Disc annular, 5-lobed, yellow. Ovary 2-carpellary, apocarpous, many-ovuled; style to 1.6 cm long; stigma acute with a ring at base. Fruits of two, recurved or divaricate mericarps, 7-8 x 4-6 cm, somewhat elongate-reniform or obovoid-oblong, yellow or green with many pale grey or brownish warts. Seeds many, to 8 mm long, ovoid, dark brown, rugose; aril orange red.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
Throughout the year
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District(s):
Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Cultivated as garden plant, sometimes run wild
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Distribution:
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:
Yes
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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:
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Localities:
Alleppey town
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