Chukrasia tabularis A. Juss. (MELIACEAE)
Common names
English: Chittagong wood.
Malayalam: Akil.
Tamil: Aglay, Maleiveppu.
Telugu: Madagari vembu.
Description: Towering trees reaching heights of up to 30 meters, adorned with reddish-brown bark. Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, up to 50 cm long; leaflets 10-20, subopposite or alternate, ovate-oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, up to 15 x 8 cm, inequilateral at base, acuminate at apex; petiolule up to 8 mm long; upper leaflets larger than the lower. Flowers yellowish-white. Calyx 5-lobed, puberulous. Petals 5, linear oblong or spathulate, puberulous outside, pubescent inside. Staminal tube dark purple, glabrous; anthers 10. Ovary hairy; stigma capitate. Fruit a capsule, ovoid, up to 5 x 2.5 cm, speckled with lenticels, brown. Seeds many, winged.
Flowering & Fruiting: May – March.
Distribution: India: Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachala Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Uses: Bark astringent.