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Cinnamomum macrocarpum
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Family:
LAURACEAE
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Citation: Cinnamomum macrocarpum Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 133. 1886; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 1225(857). 1925; Mohanan, Fl. Quilon Dist. 344. 1984; Vajr., Fl. Palghat Dist. 402. 1990; M. Mohanan & Henry, Fl. Thiruvanthapuram 392. 1994; Subram., Fl. Thenmala Div. 312. 1995; Sasidh., Fl. Periyar Tiger Reserve 344. 1998; Ravikumar & Ved, Illustr. Field Guide 100 Red Listed Med. Pl. 87. 2000 Mohanan & Sivad., Fl. Agasthyamala 566. 2002.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Karuva
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Trees, to 15 m high; bole thinly buttressed; bark 5 mm thick, greyish, smooth, with faint aniseed and clove smell, blaze dull red; branchlets thick, angular, glabrous or with a few, microscopically, appressed hairs. Apical bud small, densely and very minutely sericeous. Leaves simple, opposite and subopposite, estipulate; petiole 10-28 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 7-25 x 2-12 cm, ovate, elliptic-ovate or elliptic-lanceolate, base cuneate or decurrent into petiole, apex obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, shiny above, pale, minutely, smoothly and densely reticulate beneath, coriaceous; 3-5-ribbed from base, of which 2 middle arise from a little above the base, side ribs slender, fainting 2-3 cm below the leaf tip; intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers bisexual, upto 7 mm long, white, sparsely to more densely minutely sericeous, in axillary few flowered stout, almost glabrous panicle upto 7 cm long; peduncle flattened, branchlets few, 1-2.5 cm long; pedicel upto 1 cm long, stout, obconic, microscopically sparsely appressed pilose; perianth tube 1-2 mm long, funnel shaped; tepals 6, 3-4 mm long, ovate-oblong, acute, sericeous inside; stamens 9 perfect, in 3 rows, 2-2.5 mm long, those of first and second row opposite the perianth lobes; introrse and eglandular, those of third row opposite the first row, smaller, lateral, bearing rather large glands attached 1/3 from the filament base; filaments pilose; anthers oblong, 4-celled, longer than the broad; staminodes fourth row opposite the second row, slightly shorter than the stamens with hastate-sagittate small apical part and long pilose stipe; ovary half inferior, ellipsoid; style 1.5-2 mm long, thick; stigma minute, peltate. Fruit a berry, upto 2 x 2.5 cm, ellipsoid, subtended by thick fleshy cup of 15 mm long, obconical thick basal part flaring upwards into the actual shallow cup of 1-1.5 cm diameter bearing remnants of non-enlarged tepals.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-March
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District(s):
Kollam, Idukki, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Evergreen forests
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Distribution:
Southern Western Ghats
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
Green, Yellow
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
No
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
Southern Western Ghats
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
600-1800
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Localities:
Sabarimala, Mukkali forests, Kaikatty forests-Pothundy, Kallamalai, Thenmalai, Vandalodu, Meenmutty, Pongalapara
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