Aporosa bourdillonii Stapf - EUPHORBIACEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Malamvetti

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Status Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 8 m tall.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petiole up to 1.5 cm long, tomentose; lamina 15 x 5.5 cm, oblong, apex caudate, base rounded to subacute, tomentose along midrib beneath; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves 7-9 pairs, looped; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence axillary; flowers unisexual, dioecious; male flowers in axillary catkins, up to 1.5 cm long; female in short few flowered cymes.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule 2 cm long, ovoid, beaked, softly echinate, tomentose; stigma persistent with 6 subulate lobes.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in low elevation evergreen forests up to 200 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- South Sahyadri.

Status :

Endangered (IUCN, 2000).

Literatures :

Hooker, Ic. 23, t. 2204. 1892; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 1309. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 409. 2004.

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