Gluta travancorica Bedd. - ANACARDIACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Senkurinji, Shencurani  Malayalam: Thodappai  English: Tinnelvelli red wood

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Status Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees, up to 35 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark smooth, often with scars of irregular flakes.
Branches and Branchlets : Branches with architecture of “Aubreville_model”, Branchlets stout, glabrous.
Exudates : Latex white, not profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends; petiole less than 0.5 cm long, stout, glabrous, planoconvex in cross section; lamina 6.5-19 x 1.8-7 cm, oblanceolate or spathulate, apex obtuse or rounded (slightly acuminate in young trees), base cuneate to decurrent, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 12-18 pairs; tertiary_nerves reticulo-percurrent or broadly reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence axillary or terminal panicles, 8-10 cm long, tomentose; flowers bisexual, white.
Fruit and Seed : Drupe, woody, globose, 3.8 cm across, 1-seeded.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in medium elevation (600-1400 m) wet evergreen forests.

Distribution :

Endemic to Western_Ghats (Agasthyamalai Hills in South Sahyadri).

Status :

Low risk: near threatened (IUCN, 2000).

Literatures :

Beddome, Fl. Sylv. 1: 60. 1870; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 261. 1997 (re. ed); Mohanan and Sivadasan, Fl. Agasthymala 179. 2002; Mohanan and Henry Fl. Thiruvananthapuram 128. 1994.

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