Ficus beddomei King - MORACEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Chela; Thavittaal

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees, beginning as epiphytic later become strangler and independent, up to 25 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark pale brown to yellowish, smooth; blaze cream.
Branches and branchlets : Branchlets stout, terete, glabrous, with annular scars.
Exudates : Latex white, profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules to 3.5 cm long, lanceolate, glabrous, caducous leaving annular scars; petiole stout, 2.5-4 (-10) cm long, canaliculate, glabrous; lamina 10-25 x 5-15 cm, ovate, apex acuminate, base rounded to subtruncate, margin slightly undulate, thickly coriaceous, glabrous, drying brown; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 12-15 pairs, looping near margin; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence syconia, in axillary pairs, ovoid or obovoid, glabrous; peduncle 1.5-2 cm long; flowers unisexual, occurs with in the inner wall of syconia.
Fruit and Seed : Syconium, monoecious, to 2.5 cm across, green, spotted with yellow when ripe, peduncle stout; achenes, obovoid, smooth.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests between 200 and 1200 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- South, Central and Maharashtra Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. (Calcutta) 1: 26. tt. 24 & 81 M. 1887; Gamble, Fl. Madras 3: 1364.1998 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 438. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 115.1984; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 4b:363.2003.

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