Cynometra travancorica Bedd. - FABACEAE-CAESALPINIOIDEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Koori.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Status Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Tall evergreen trees, buttressed, up to 30 m tall.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, slender, lenticellate.
Leaves : Leaves compound, bifoliolate, alternate, distichous, pulvinate; stipules caducous; rachis to 0.7 cm long, canaliculate; lamina 4-14 x 1.5-4.5 cm, asymmetric, falcate or lanceolate, apex gradually acuminate with blunt or retuse tip, base asymmetric, margin entire, chartaceous or subcoriaceous, glabrous; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves ca.12 pairs; tertiary_nerves reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers rosy-white in short axillary racemes.
Fruit and Seed : Pod flat, smooth, glabrous, to 3.2 cm long; 1-seeded.

Ecology :

Rare canopy tree in low elevation wet evergreen forest between 200 and 700 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- rarely found in Agasthyamalai of South Sahyadri, North Malabar and Palakkad Hills to Coorg Region in Central Sahyadri.

Status :

Endangered (IUCN, 2000).

Literatures :

Beddome, Fl. Sylv. 316. 1872; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 413. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 154. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 389. 1996; Keshava Murthy and Yoganarasimhan, Fl. Coorg (Kodagu) 171. 1990.

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