Walsura trifolia (A. Juss.) Harms. - MELIACEAE

Synonym : Heynea trifolia A. Juss.; Walsura piscida Roxb.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Walsura, Cheddavokko, KanjimaramMalayalam: Perillapacha; Perilla ppichuKannada: Male sagade

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 15 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark pale brown, shallowly fissured, lenticels rusty brown; blaze pink.
Branches and branchlets : Branchlets slender, terete, lenticellate, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves compound, trifoliate, alternate, spiral; rachis up to 5 cm long, triangular, pulvinate, glabrous; petiolule of side leaflets 0.4-1 cm long and middle leaflet with 1.3-3 cm long, swollen at both ends, angled or subterete; lamina 4-15 x 2.5-5 cm, variable in shape, narrow oblong to elliptic or narrow obovate, apex acuminate with retuse tip or rounded with retuse, base acute to cuneate, margin entire, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, glaucous beneath; glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves 7-13, gradually curved; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate, slender.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence terminal or axillary panicles; flowers greenish-yellow.
Fruit and Seed : Berry ovoid, to 1.3 cm long; seeds 1-2, pale brown, enclosed in a white fleshy aril.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in wet evergreen to semi-evergreen forests up to 1200 m.

Distribution :

India and Sri Lanka; in the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Engler & Prantl, Pflanzenf. ed. 2. 19b. 119, 177. 1940; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 183.1997 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 91. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 238. 1996; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 213. 1903; Almeida Fl. Maharashtra 1: 232. 1996.

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