Ficus tsjahela Burm.f - MORACEAE

Synonym : Ficus tjakela Burm.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Kal-aalMalayalam: Chela; Kara; KaralKannada: Bilibasuri; Boviyamara

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Deciduous trees up to 25 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark dark brown; blaze red.
Branches and branchlets : Branchlets terete, glabrous.
Exudates : Latex white, profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules foliaceous, 0.7 cm long, caducous and leaving annular scar; petiole ca. 6 cm long, canaliculate, glabrous; lamina to 20 x 8 cm, oblong, elliptic-oblong, apex acuminate, base rounded, coriaceous, margin entire, glabrous and glossy; basally 3-nerved; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves 6-10 pairs, prominent and parallel, looped near the margin; tertiary_nerves reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence syconia, sessile, depressed - globose, in clusters of 2-6, on very short crowded tubercles in the axils of the leaves or most frequently at the scars of fallen leaves; flowers unisexual.
Fruit and Seed : Syconium, sessile, ca. 0.5 cm across, greenish; achenes smooth.

Ecology :

common in semi-evergreen to moist deciduous forests up to 1100 m.

Distribution :

Peninsular India and Sri Lanka; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literatures :

Burm.f., Fl. India 227. 1768; Gamble, Fl. Madras 3: 1362.1998 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 441. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 120. 1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 650. 1902; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 4b:377. 2003.

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