Hopea racophloea Dyer - DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Karun kongu  Malayalam: Kalalu, Kallu, Naduvali kongu, Naduvalippongu, Nai kambagam, Veduvalikongu

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 35 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark blackish, exfoliating; blaze cream.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petioles 1-3 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 11.5 x 6.5 cm, ovate, apex shortly caudate-acuminate, base acute, glabrous, shining, domatia at the axils of secondary_nerves beneath; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves 4-5 pairs; tertiary_nerves obliquely_percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence in axillary or terminal panicles, 7.5-10 cm long; flowers yellowish-white with pink tinge.
Fruit and Seed : Nut, with accrescent_calyx; seed 1.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests between 300 and 700 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats with disjunct distribution - recorded from Agasthyamalai Hills in South Sahyadri and Nilambur Ghats and Brahmagiris in Central Sahyadri.

Literatures :

Fl. Brit. India 1: 310. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 82. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 45. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 194. 1996.

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