Dillenia india L. (DILLENIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Betta-kanagala.
Malayalam: Chalita, Syalita.
Tamil: Uva.
Telugu: Pedda kalinga.
English: Elephant apple.
Description: Evergreen trees, up to 25 m tall; bark smooth, peeling off in a small thin hard scales; branchlets tomentose. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 15-40 x 5-12 cm, attenuate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, more or less serrate-dentate along margins, glabrous above, strigose especially on nerves beneath; lateral nerves 30-50 pairs; petiole 4-8 cm long, silky hairy. Flowers solitary, terminal, 15-20 cm across, white. Sepals 5, orbicular, 4-6 x 3-5 cm. Petals 5, oblong-obovate, 7-9 x 5-6 cm, rounded at apex, fleshy white with green veins. Stamens numerous, inner whorl longer than the rest and recurved. Carpels 14-20, each with 40-80 ovules; style flattened. Fruits 7-10 cm across, greenish yellow. Numerous seeds, roughly 6 by 4 millimeters in size, are kidney-shaped, compressed, with a hairy margin, initially reddish and later turning black.
Flowering : May – August.
Fruiting : September – February.
Distribution: India: Tropical and subtropical regions, up to 800 m in N.E. region, Gangetic plains, central India and Western Ghats. Uttara Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand,Cambodia, Vietnam to Malaysia.
Uses: Cultivated as an ornamental.