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Garcinia cowa
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Family:
CLUSIACEAE/GUTTIFERAE
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Citation: Garcinia cowa Roxb. ex DC., Prodr. 1: 561. 1824; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 202. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 74(53). 1915; Vajr., Fl. Palghat Dist. 70. 1990; N.P. Singh in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 108. 1993; Sasidh. et al., Bot. Stud. Med. Pl. Kerala 22. 1996; Swarup. et al., Shola For. Kerala 45. 1998; Sasidh., Fl. Periyar Tiger Reserve 25. 1998; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 135. 2009.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Kowa
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Cowa fruit, Cowa moangosteen
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Description:
Evergreen trees, to 15 m high, bark smooth, surface greyish-brown; blaze creamy-yellow; exudation yellow, sticky, scanty; branches horizontal; branchlets quadrangular, drooping. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, estipulate; petiole 8-13 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 8-17 x 2.5-7 cm, elliptic-oblong, oblanceolate or broadly lanceolate, base acute, attenuate or cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, thickly coriaceous; lateral nerves 15-21 pairs, pinnate, ascending, slender, prominent, looped along the margin forming intramarginal nerve, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers dioecious, small, yellow; male flowers: to 1 cm across, 3-8 in axillary or terminal fascicles; pedicels about 6 mm long; sepals 4, 4-6 mm long, unequal, broadly ovate, fleshy, yellow; petals 4, 8-10 mm long, oblong, yellow flushed with pink or red; stamens numerous on a convex fleshy receptacle; anthers oblong; filaments short; rudimentary pistil absent; female flowers: upto 1.5 cm across, 2-5 in terminal fascicles, longer than male flowers, yellow; pedicel short; staminodes in a ring of 4 bundles of 3-8 around the ovary; filaments unequal; ovary superior, subglobose, 6-8 locular, ovules one in each cell; stigma sessile, flat, deeply divided into 6-8, papillose, wedge shaped rays. Fruit a berry, 2-4 cm across, depressed, globose, with 4-8 vertical grooves, smooth, yellow, ridid, beaked; seeds 4-8, oblong with a soft aril.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
December-September
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District(s):
Idukki, Palakkad, Wayanad
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Evergreen and shola forests
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Distribution:
India to Indo-China
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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):
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:
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
Vellimala, Karivara slopes, Anavayee forests
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