Bhesa indica (Bedd.) Ding Hou - CELASTRACEAE

Synonym : Trochisandra indica Bedd.; Kurrimia bipartite Lawson; Kurrimia indica Gamble

Vernacular names : Tamil: Kadapla.  Malayalam: Penali.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees, up to 30 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark smooth, brownish; blaze pinkish cream.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets stout, terete, glabrous with scars of fallen leaves and stipules.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends, stipules large, to 2.5 cm long, lanceolate, caducous; petiole 2.5-4.5 cm long, swollen at both ends; lamina 10-18 x 4.5-8.5 cm elliptic-oblong to narrow-ovate, apex obtusely acute or short acuminate with folded, base rounded, coriaceous, shining above, glabrous; secondary_nerves 11 to 20 pairs, strong, nearly parallel, oblique to midrib; tertiary_nerves closely_horizontally_percurrent, slender.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence terminal, panicled racemes; flowers small, white.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, red, 2 lobed; seeds 1 per lobe.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in the medium and high elevation wet evergreen forests from 900-1600 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- South Sahyadri.

Literatures :

Blumea suppl. 4. 152. 1958; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 207. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 95. 2004.

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