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Sonneratia alba
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Family:
SONNERATIACEAE
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Citation: Sonneratia alba J. E. Smith in Rees, Cyclop. 2: 33. 1819; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 2: 580. 1879; Anupama & Sivad., Rheedea 14: 40. 2004.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Nakshathrakandel
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
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Description:
Evergreen trees, to 7 m high; pneumatophores 75 x 0.8 cm, straight, stout, conical, outer thin layer flaky, yellowish-brown; bark brown, cracked; branchlets terete, glabrous; nodes swollen with 2 lateral pairs of cicular glands. L eaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 5-10 mm long, stout, glabrous, white or pink; lamina 4.5-11 x 3-9 cm, broadly elliptic, ovate, obovate, oblong or suborbicular; base cuneate; apex obtuse; coriaceous, slightly fleshy, glabrous; lateral nerves 7-13 pairs, parallel, looped near the margin forming intramarginal nerve, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, white, 6.5 × 8 cm, in terminal axillary or leaf opposed clusters of 2, 3 or rarely solitary; pedicel 1-4 cm long terete, glabrous; bracteoles 2, green; calyx green outside, white within, calyx cup 2 x 2.5 cm, angular, glabrous, enclosing the basal portion of the pistil, lobes 6-8, 2 x 1 cm, oblong, acute, thick, greenish outside, reddish within, coriaceous, glabrous, persistent; petals 6-8, 26 x 0.75 mm, linear, white with reddish tinge towards apex, membranous, glabrous; stamens numerous, free, inflexed in bud, inserted in several rows on the terminal raised rim of the calyx cup, white, thread like, anthers reniform, medifixed, bilobed; pistil 7 x 1.5 cm, glabrous, white, globose but flattened above with a depression around the stylar base, many celled, ovules many; style coiled in bud, to 6 cm, white, terete; stigma a capitate, pale green. Fruit a drupe 4 cm across, green, flattened above with persistent calyx and style and with a depression around the stylar base; pericarp smooth, glabrous, calyx lobes reflexed; seeds many embedded in the fleshy pulp of the placenta, falcate, surface rough.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-May
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District(s):
Kannur, Kasaragode, Ernakulam, Kozhikkode
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Mangrove forests
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Distribution:
Paleotropics
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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):
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:
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