Polyalthia fragrans (Datz.) Beddome (ANNONACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Gowrimara.
Malayalam: Chella, Kodangi.
Description: Trees, 15-25 m tall; bark greenish grey, blotched with white; young parts tawny tomentose. Leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, up to 27 x 12 cm, acute or rounded at base, acute to shortly acuminate at apex. Flowers in short tomentose cymes on old wood, branches, pale yellow, fragrant. Sepals 3, small, orbicular. Petals 6 in 2 series, subequal, linear, up to 4 cm long; inner petals slightly longer. There are numerous stamens, and the anther connective is globose at the tip. The carpels are numerous and strigose, with a broad, slightly bifid stigma. The fruitlets are ovoid, measuring up to 3.5 cm in length, and they are hoary-tomentose. Each fruit contains a single seed that is orbicular-ovoid.
Flowering : November – January.
Fruiting : March – May.
Distribution: India : In semi-evergreen and evergreen forests of Western Ghats, from 500 to 1000m. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.
