Mallotus philippensis (Lam.) Muell.-Arg. - EUPHORBIACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Kamala, Kanapotta, Kapila, Kapilapodi, Kapili, Konaspootoo, Kungumam, Kurangu manjanathi, Manjanai, Thavattai  Malayalam: Cenkolli, Cindooram, Kampipala, Kapila, Kapilam Kunkumam, Kuramadakka, Kuramadakku, Kurukkutti, Manjana, Pipponnakam, Ponni, Pinoo, Ponnagam, Ponnakam, Ponoo, Punna, Shenkolli, Sinduri, Tavitu, Thavatta  Kannada: Kampillaka, Kumkumada mara, Kunkumada mara  English: Kamala dye tree, Monkey face tree

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 12 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Trunk fluted; bark brownish, fissured; blaze purplish brown.
Branches and Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, grey pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipule caducous; petiole 1.5-7.6 cm long, inflated at both ends, pubescent, terete, striate; lamina 6-22 x 3-11.5 cm, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, apex acuminate, base acute to rounded, margin entire or serrate, chartaceous, glabrous above, pubescent with red resinous punctate beneath; trinerved_at_base; secondary_nerves ca. 7 pairs; tertiary_nerves percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers unisexual, dioecious, in terminal spikes.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, globose, densely red glandular; seeds black, 1 per cell.

Ecology :

Common understorey trees in evergreen to semi-evergreen forests up to 1500 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia and Australia; in the Western_Ghats- through out.

Literatures :

Linnaea 34: 196. 1865; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 1322. 1993 (re.ed.); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 423. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 152. 1996.

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