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Sterculia foetida
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Family:
STERCULIACEAE
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Citation: Sterculia foetida L., Sp. Pl. 1008. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 354. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 105(75). 1915; K.C. Malick in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 459. 1993; M. Mohanan & Henry, Fl. Thiruvanthapuram 87. 1994; Sasidh., Fl. Chinnar WLS 42. 1999; V. Chithra in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 472. 2005; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 139. 2009; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 166. 2009.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Kavalam, Peenari, Poothimanathi, Poothiyunarthi, Pottakavalam
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Indian Almond, Java Olive, Skunk Tree
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Description:
Deciduous trees, to 25 m high, bole buttressed; bark grey, smooth, irregularly flaking off in thin scales; blaze reddish-yellow; branches horizontal, whorled. Leaves palmately compound, alternate, clustered at the end of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, deciduous; rachis 8-24 cm long, slender, glabrous, swollen at base; leaflets 3-9; petiolule to 3 mm; lamina 5.5-14 x 2-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic oblanceolate, base cuneate, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-24, parallel, close, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, prominent. Flowers unisexual or polygamous, dull-orange red, in axillary or terminal racemes, foetid smell; calyx dull orange red, deeply 5-partite, glabrous out side, woolly inside; petals absent; male flowers: staminal column curved, hairy at base, bearing 10-15 anthers at its tip; female flowers: ovary 5, free, superior, downy, each with 20 ovules, gynophore stout; styles deflexed, hairy; staminodes subsessile in a ring beneath the carpels. Fruit an aggregate of follicle of 1-5, scarlet, boat shaped, 5-lobed, woody, glabrous; seeds black, numerous, ellipsoid, smooth, with a small yellow aril.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-August
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District(s):
Alappuzha, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Wayanad
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Moist deciduous forests and in the plains along coastal areas
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Distribution:
Pantropical
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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):
Red, Orange
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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:
Churullipetty, Aroor, Pooyamkutty
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