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.
