Toona ciliata Roem. - MELIACEAE

Synonym : Cedrela toona Roxb. ex Rottl. & Willd.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Santhana vembu, TunumaramMalayalam: Akil; Aranamaram; Aroma; Chandanaveppu; Chuvannaakil; Devadaram; Ekana; Madhageri vembu; Patukarana; Thunnam; Vedivembu; VembuKannada: Ganda garike; Kempu gandagiri

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Deciduous trees up to 28 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark reddish brown, exfoliating in large flakes when old; blaze deep pink with white streak.
Branches and branchlets : Branchlets terete, lenticellate, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves compound, paripinnate, 23-90 cm long, clustered at twig ends; rachis terete, pulvinate, 60 cm or more, glabrous; petiolule 0.7-2.0 cm long; leaflets 6-15 pairs, alternate, subopposite or opposite, 5-15 x 2-6 cm, lanceolate to narrow ovate, apex caudate-acuminate and slightly curved, base asymmetric, margin entire, sometime crenate when young, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, glabrous, shining above, pale beneath; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 12-16 pairs; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence terminal panicles, drooping; flowers white.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, elliptic, 5-valved, to 2 cm long, with white patches; seeds many, papery winged.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in open evergreen, semi-evergreen to moist deciduous forests up to 1200 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literatures :

Syn. Hesper. 139. 1846; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 186.1997 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 91. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 236. 1996; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 217. 1903; Almeida Fl. Maharashtra 1: 229. 1996.

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