Palaquium ellipticum (Dalz.) Baill. - SAPOTACEAE

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Vernacular names : Tamil: Palvadinthan, Pali, PalaiMalayalam: Choppala, Pachendi, Pali, PanchendiKannada: PanchontaEnglish: Palai

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Tall, buttressed trees, up to 35 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark smooth, lenticellate, irregularly flaky when mature; blaze reddish brown.
Branchlets : Branches with architecture of “Aubreville_model”; young branchlets terete, puberulent, later glabrous.
Exudates : Latex white, profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipule small, caducous and leaving scar; petiole 1.5- 3 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, minutely puberulous when young; lamina 7-15 x 3-5 cm, elliptic-obovate or elliptic, apex caudate to acuminate with blunt tip, Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipule small, caducous and leaving scar; petiole 1.5- 3 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, minutely puberulous when young; lamina 7-15 x 3-5 cm, elliptic-obovate or elliptic, apex caudate to acuminate with blunt tip, base cuneate to attenuate, margin undulate, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary nerves 8-12 pairs, slender; tertiary nerves reticulo-percurrent.
Flowers : Flowers white, in axillary clusters or in pairs, on long pedicel up to 1.5 cm long; calyx with fulvous appressed hairs.
Fruit& seed : Berry, narrow elliptic or ellipsoid to 5 x 2 cm; seed one.

Ecology :

Common canopy trees in low and medium elevatipn evergreen forests up to 1500 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literature :

Baill., Traite, Bot. Med. Phan. 1500. 1884; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 764. 1993 (re.ed.); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 269. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 333.1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 94.1908; Almeida, Fl. Ma.

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