Common names
Kannada: Bellaka, Nayibende.
Malayalam: Velukku.
Tamil: Vendai.
Telugu: Potri.

Description: Trees, up to 20 m tall with white soft bark; young branches densely pubescent with minute greyish stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, ovate-orbicular with angular lobes, up to 17 x 15 cm, rounded or subcordate at base, acute or obtuse at apex, entire or irregularly serrate, stellate – pubescent, glaucous beneath; petioles up to 7 cm long. Flowers polygamous, in axillary or terminal densely stellate – pubescent, panicles, white or pink. Epicalyx segments 4-6, oblong – spathulate or obovate, stellate pubescent, persistent. Calyx cup-shaped, 5-lobed, lobes ovate acute, stellate-pubescent, persistent. Petals 5, spathulate, emarginated, fimbriate. Stamens numerous, pistillode absent adnate to staminal column. Staminal column 5-branched at apex in male flowers. In female flowers branches of staminal column short with imperfect anthers. The ovary is ovoid and 3-locular, featuring three styles with peltate stigmas. The fruit is a hard, subglobose capsule, approximately 5 mm in diameter, and exhibits a depressed shape. The seeds are brown, reniform to ellipsoid, measuring about 3 x 2 mm.

Flowering: September – November.
Fruiting: November – February.

Distribution: India: Throughout in subtropical evergreen forests from 600 to 1200 m.Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.

Uses:

• Wood white, soft, used in building construction, and to a limited extent in making of matchboxes, splints, light packing-cases, agricultural implements, oars, carving, spoons and ladles. The wood is suitable for veneers and plywood, brush backs, turnery, toys, bobbins, shuttles, carriage and wagon work, shoe heel and cheap pencils. The wood is used as fuel and for making charcoal. Inner bark yields a fibre used locally for making coarse ropes.
• The pulp, when combined with 30% bamboo chemical pulp, can be utilized for the production of low-quality newsprint. Additionally, the tree is appreciated for its leaves, which are harvested for use as fodder. The wood is a good source of commercial potash. The young bark is mucilaginous and cold infusion of it is used in gur making for clarifying sugarcane juice. Paste of leaves applied in body pains, leaves also used in poultices for skin diseases and are chewed when there is deficiency of saliva.

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Common names
Kannada: Raktamara.
Tamil: Chorappattiri, Suriya pattri, Kariyan.
Malayalam: Chora pathri, Chora payin.

Description: These trees can reach heights of up to 20 meters, and their young parts are covered in a tawny tomentum. The leaves are oblong-lanceolate, measuring up to 22 x 8 cm, with an acute to rounded base and an abruptly acuminate apex. The undersides of the leaves have a glaucous appearance. Flowers in stellately tomentose umbels, dioecious. Perianth lobes 3, brown and stellate-tomentose outside, glabrous and pink inside. Filaments and connectives connate in a peltate disk; anthers 12-20. Fruits ovoid or oblong-ovoid, up to 4 x 2 cm, rusty tomentose. Seeds ovoid; aril laciniate only at apex, crimson.

Flowering & Fruiting: December – May

Distribution: India: In evergreen and semi-evergreen forests. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic to South W. India. It is one of the ingredient of ‘Ashwagandhadhinei’ (medicated ghee), used for treatment of spleen disorders, breathing disorders and tastelessness.

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Common names
Kannada: Enne mara.
Malayalam: Kodapalla.
Tamil: Kodapalai, Madayanasambrani.
English: Malabar mahogany.

Description: Evergreen trees up to 20 m tall with dark brown bark. Leaves alternate, odd- pinnate; leaf rachis ca 12 cm long; leaflets 5-7, elliptic – oblong, ca 10 x 4 cm, rounded at base, acute to acuminate at apex; petioles ca 6 mm long. Flowers small, in axillary and terminal dense racemes arranged in panicles, white. Sepals 5, orbicular, petaloid, gland-dotted. Petals 0. Stamens 10; filaments twice as long as the sepals; anthers versatile. The ovary is sessile and 1-locular. The fruit is a woody, dark brown pod, obovate, measuring approximately 4 x 2.5 cm. It contains a single, compressed seed.

Flowering & Fruiting: April – August.

Distribution: India: Occasional in evergreen forests of Western Ghats, up to 1000 m. Endemic. A threatened species.

Uses: Wood dark red or reddish brown with a sticky resin, used for beams, rafters, battens, ceiling boards, flooring and furniture. It has been used for cordite cases, bowls and croquet balls and is suitable for billiards tables, cue handles, cabinet work and ornamental veneers. It is considered suitable for plywood. Oleo-gum-resin used in gonorrhoea, catarrhal conditions of genito-urinary and respiratory tracts. It is also used in sores of elephants.

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