Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Oken - SAPINDACEAE

Synonym : Schleichera trijuga Willd.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Puvam, Puvatthi, Pumaratha, Karanachi, PulichiMalayalam: Dhoothalam, Poovanam, Poovam.Kannada: Chakota, SagadeEnglish: Ceylon Oak, Kusum, Ma

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large deciduous trees up to 20 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Trunk fluted; bark grey, irregularly scaly; blaze pink.
Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves compound, paripinnate, alternate, spiral; rachis pulvinate, glabrous; petiolule up to 0.3 cm long, glabrous, leaflets 2-3 pairs, opposite, increasing in size towards apex, 4-26 x 1.8-9 cm, variable in shape, elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate - obovate, apex rounded, sometimes emarginate, base asymmetric, cuneate to rounded, margin entire, thinly coriaceous, glabrous; midrib thinly raised above; secondary_nerves ca. 16 pairs, straight and curved near margin; tertiary_nerves reticulo-percurrent.
Flowers : Inflorescence axillary panicles; flowers polygamodioecious, subsessile.
Fruit& seed : Drupe, 1.5 x 1 cm, ellipsoid, apiculate, echinate; seeds 1-2 enclosed in aril.

Ecology :

Along margin of evergreen forests, semi-evergreen and deciduous forests up to 1000 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literature :

Oken, Allg. Naturgesch. 3: 1341. 1841; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 248. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6:109. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 196. 1996; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1:266. 1903; Almeida, Fl. Mahara.

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