Category: V

Vitex altissima L. f. (VERBENACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Navulaadi, Myrole.
Tulu: Myrole.
Malayalam: Mayilai.
Tamil: Maila.
Telugu: Nemili adaga.

Description: Large trees, 20-25 m tall with grey, scaly bark. Leaves 3 (rarely 5) foliate; leaflets sessile, lanceolate, the terminal is ca 15 x 5 cm, the lateral is ca 10 x 3 cm, acute at base, acuminate at apex, glabrescent above, pubescent beneath; main nerves numerous; petioles ca 6.5 cm long. Flowers in 12-20 cm long shortly pedunculate or nearly sessile cymes, clustered along the branches of large lax fulvous-pubescent terminal panicles, white tinged with blue or violet. Calyx copular, pubescent without, lobes 5. Corolla bilabiate, puberulous within, lobes 5. There are 4 didynamous stamens with short filaments. The ovary is imperfectly 2-locular, and the style is filiform with a bifid stigma. The fruit is a drupe, globose, approximately 1.2 cm in diameter, held by an enlarged flattened calyx. It is smooth and purple. The seeds are ovate or oblong.

Flowering & Fruiting: March – October.

Distribution: India: Common in evergreen, deciduous and dry forests of Deccan, Carnatic, W. Coast, up to 1300 m. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Wood grey to yellowish-brown, hard and close grained, does not split or wrap and polishes well. It is used for building purposes such as beams, columns, doors, windows and floor boards. Also used for furniture, cabinet work, agricultural implements, oil-mills, wheel work, tool handles and boats. Used for building temples in some parts of south India. A good fuel wood. The fruit is used in stomatitis, cardiac diseases, anorexia, blindness, leprosy, worm infestation and as digestive and carminative.

Vepris bilocularis (Wight & Arn.) Engl. (RUTACEAE)

Common name
Kannada: Manguppe.
Malayalam: Karagil.
Sanskrit: Krishna guru.
Tamil: Devadarom.

Description: Evergreen trees, up to 30 m tall; stem bark grey-brownish, lenticellate. Leaves alternate, digitally 3-folio-late, 16.5 – 25 cm long; leaflets elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic – oblong, 8.5 – 21 x 4 – 8 cm, slightly oblique at base entire, acute or acuminate at apex, gland dotted; petioles up to 1 cm long; secondary nerves up to 40 pairs, close parallel. Flowers in panicles, unisexual, white.Panicles terminal or from uppermost leaf axils, up to 10 cm long. Calyx saucer-shaped, 2-3 lobed, rarely sepals 0. Petals 2 or 3, imbricate, orbicular, glandular. Stamens 6, exserted, anthers dorsifixed, oblong. Pistillodes cylindric, 2-cleft above. The ovary is globose and has 2-4 locules. Staminodes are rudimentary, featuring effete anthers. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, either subglobose or oblong, measuring approximately 1 x 2 cm, with two locules. Inside, there are two seeds that are oblong, flattened, and brownish.

Flowering: March – May.
Fruiting : August – September.

Distribution: India: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of southern Western Ghatsup to 1500 m. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Uses: Wood is tough and used for helves and handles, cartwheels and spokes. Root decoction given in biliousness; wood used in eye and ear diseases; decoction of wood boiled in oil used in rheumatic swellings, asthma and leprosy.

Vateria indica L. (Dipterocarpaceae)

Common names
Kannada: Dhupa, Ganapathi kai, Painimaram, Vella payin.
Tamil: Vellai kundi, Pinaymarum.
Telugu: Dhupada maru.
English: Piney varnish, White dammar, Indian copal, White dhup.

Description: Trees, up to 30 m tall; bark smooth, white to grey, blotched with white and green, peeling off in thick, round flakes; branchlets and inflorescence stellate-canascent. Leaves ovate or oblong or elliptic-oblong, up to 25 x 10 cm, cordate or rounded at base, obtuse or acuminate at apex, coriaceous, bright red when young; lateral nerves slender; petioles up to 4 cm long; stipules obliquely lanceolate, acute. Flowers in large terminal or lateral corymbose panicles, white, fragrant. Calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, obtuse, canascent on both surfaces. The petals, numbering 5, are elliptic-oblong and obtuse, spreading in arrangement. There are 40-50 stamens with nearly sessile anthers, and the connective is muticous. The ovary is tomentose. The fruit is a capsule, ovoid-ellipsoid, or oblong, measuring approximately 4.5 cm in length, brown, and 3-valved.

Flowering: January – April.
Fruiting: May – July.

Distribution: India: Evergreen forests of the Western Ghats up to 1300 m. Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Uses:

• The semi-solid fat, commonly referred to as “Pinay tallow,” “Malabar tallow,” or “Dhupa fat,” extracted from the dried kernels of the seeds, is employed in the production of candles and soaps. It is used for edible purposes after refining. It is used in confectionary and as an adulterant of ghee. Wood greyish brown, rough, much in demand in plywood and veneer industry; also used for making tea-chests, trunks, ammunition boxes, flooring and other interior fittings. It can also be used for railway sleepers. The heartwood can be used for shuttering, centering and scaffolding and for making oars, masts etc. The gum resin known in trade as ‘Pinay resin’, ‘White dammar’ or ‘Dupa’ is used in varnish industry and for making incense.
• It is additionally utilized in setting gold ornaments and caulking boats. The wood is deemed reasonably suitable for paper pulp. The oil-cake, remaining after oil extraction, serves as a valuable manure, particularly in coffee plantations. It is extensively planted as an avenue tree. Bark alexipharmic, bechic, used in dysentery, leprosy, hemicrania, tuberculous glands, boils, ringworm, anaemia, ear diseases, urinary discharges, skin eruptions, ulcers, wounds; fruit (fatty oil) and resin used in rheumatism; resin known as “Dammar resin” is considered tonic, carminative, expectorant, used in chronic bronchitis and throat troubles, diarrhoea, piles and amenorrhoea. It enters into an ointment used for carbuncles and is a good emollient for plasters and ointment bases.

Vatica chinensis L. (DIPTEROCARPACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Uggalu dhupa.
Malayalam: Adakka payin, Vella payin.
Tamil: Vella payin.

Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 30 meters, with a dense and spreading crown. The bark is smooth and pale grey, while the young shoots and flowers are covered in a fine down (lipidote). The leaves are elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, measuring up to 25 x 11 cm, with a rounded base and tapering to a subulate acumen at the apex. There are 10-14 pairs of lateral nerves. Flowers in axillary ca 30 cm long panicles yellowish white. Calyx lobes 5, ovate-deltoid to lanceolate, acute, pubescent. Petals 5, oblong. Stamens 15 in 2 rows, anthers shortly apiculate. Ovary covered with large, shallow pits; stigmas densely papillose; obscurely 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, indehisent, subglobose, up to 2.5 cm across, with 3 obscure, loculicidal furrows, brown, puberulous, attached to the spreading accrescent sepals.

Flowering: February – March.
Fruiting: June.

Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats along streams at low elevation. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Wood reddish brown, hard, durable, withstands water submersion and used for building piles etc. The transparent yellow resin obtained from wood is used in the manufacture of varnishes.