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Rhizophora apiculata
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Family:
RHIZOPHORACEAE
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Citation: Rhizophora apiculata Blume, Enum. Pl. Jav. 1: 91. 1827; Mohanan, Fl. Quilon Dist. 173. 1984; Anupama & Sivad., Rheedea 14: 34. 2004; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 279. 2009.
Rhizophora candelaria DC., Prodr. 3: 32. 1828; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 456(323). 1919.
Rhizophora conjugata Arn., Ann. Nat. Hist. 1: 363. 1838; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 436. 1878.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Kaya-kandel, Vallikandel
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Evergreen trees, to 5 m high; trunk and lower branches supported by numerous profusely looping stilt roots and prop roots corky, lenticellate; bark brown, fissured; branchlets terete, glabrous, reddish-brown or greyish-white, with conspicuous circular, scaly, brown stipular scar. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, clustered towards the apex; stipules interpetiolar, 9 x 1.5 cm, pale red; petiole 20-30 mm long, stout, grooved above, pale green, glabrous; lamina 13-17 x 4-7 cm, elliptic, oblong, oblanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, base cuneate, apex apiculate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous, dark, green above, pale green beneath; lateral nerves 10-15 pairs, slender, pinnate, secondary laterals present, obscure; intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, 2.2 x 1.5 cm, sessile, in axillary unbranched 2 flowered cymes; peduncle to 5 mm long, glabrous; bracts small, connate; bracteoles 2, connate, cupular, 5 mm across, dark brown, surface wrinkled and cracked, enclosing the base of the calyx; calyx externally fissured, brownish-yellow outside and yellowish-white and glabrous within; lobes 4, 1.5 x 0.7 cm, ovate-oblong, acute, fleshy, persistent; petals 4, free, 9 x 2.5 mm, narrow-lanceolate, acute, white, thin, flat, glabrous, persistent; stamens 11 or 12, free, sessile, inserted on the margin of the receptacular disc; anthers 8 mm long, multilocellate; pistil conoid, slightly angled; ovary half inferior, inserted within and fused with the calyx cup, 2-celled, ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous, style short, stigma bifid. Fruit a drupe, 2-4 cm long, conical, pericarp brown, thick, leathery, calyx lobes reflexed; seed one; hypocotyl 50 x 1.8 cm, piercing the apex of the fruit, cylindric, thick towards the radicle tip, tip blunt, straight with a slight curvature at plumular end; cotyledonary collar protruded and exposed on maturity.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
Throughout the year
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District(s):
Alappuzha, Kollam, Ernakulam, Kozhikkode, Kannur, Kasaragode, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Thrissur
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Medicinal:
Yes
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Habitat:
Mangrove swamps
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Distribution:
Indo-Malesia
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Aquatic:
Yes
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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, White
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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:
Kumbolichira
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