Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd. ex Hiern - MELIACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Vellaiyagil; PurippaMalayalam: Akil; Kana mulla; Purippa; VellakilKannada: Bili agilu

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees with clear bole, up to 35 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark grey with dense large corky lenticels, exfoliating with large rectangular scales; blaze yellow and white.
Branches and branchlets : Young branchlets angular, minutely pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves compound, paripinnate, to 30 (-40) cm long, alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends, pulvinate; rachis angular, 17-20 cm long; petiolule 0.5-0.9 cm; leaflets 4-6 pairs, alternate or subopposite, 9-22 x 4-7 cm, elliptic-lanceolate; apex acuminate, base asymmetric, margin entire, coriaceous; midrib raised above; secondary neves 12-20 pairs, strong, with hairy domatia in axills; tertiary_nerves obscurely visible, reticulo-percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence panicled racemes, shorter than leaves; flowers greenish yellow, fragrant.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, pyriform, verrucose, to 7.6 cm long, yellow when ripe with 4 longitudinal furrows; seeds 3-4, reddish-brown, trigonus.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, between 200 and 1200 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the southern Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 1: 548. 1875; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 178.1997 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 90. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 233. 1996; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 209. 1903.

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