Vateria indica L. - DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Dhupa maram, Painimaram, Vellaikundrikam, Vellaidamar, Vellai kungiliyam  Malayalam: Baine, Kunturukkam, Paenoe, Paine, Paini, Payan, Payani, Payin, Pandam, Pantam, Peini, Perumpayani, Perumpiney, Pine, Piny, Pyney, Telli, Thelli, Vella kunturukkum, Vellapayin, Vellakondricum, Velutta kunturukkam  Kannada: Bilagaggala, Bilidhoopa, Dhupa mara, Dhoopada mara, Gugli, Hugadamara, Rala, Velthapaini  English: Indian copal tree, Piney varnish tree, White dhamar

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Tall trees generally up to 40 m sometimes goes up to 60 m.
Trunk & Bark : Bark greyish, smooth; blaze cream.
Branches and Branchlets : Young branchlets subterete, stellate hairy.
Exudates : Exudates resinous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules caducous; petiole 2-3.5 cm, swollen at apex, nearly glabrous; lamina 8-27 x 4.5-10 cm, elliptic-oblong, apex abruptly acuminate or obtuse, base rounded to subcordate, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 13-20 pairs; curved near margin, impressed above; tertiary_nerves slender, closely_obliquely_percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence axillary panicles with dense stellate hairs; flowers white; anthers yellow.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, pale brown, 3-valved, oblong to 6.4 x 3.8 cm, calyx_persistent, reflexed; seed 1.

Ecology :

Common canopy to emergent trees in low and medium elevation wet evergreen forests, up to 1200 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 515. 1753; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 85. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 45. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 195. 1996.

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