• Family : FABACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : PALASH FAMILY (पलाश फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LEGUMINOSAE
• Subfamily : Faboideae
• Basionym : Butea parviflora Roxb.
• Synonym(s) : Butea parviflora DC.; Spatholobus roxburghii Benth
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Spatholobus parviflorus (DC.) Kuntze
• Common name : Flame of the forest
• Vernacular name : Mukkate balli (Kannada); Pilacchivalli (Tamil); Athambu, Modugu, Maduga (Telugu); Poresu, Palasha, Polosha, Gachpalosh (Oria); Dhal, (Hindi); Adambuvalli, Athambuvalli, Chamatha, Valliplash (Malayalam)
• Habit : Liana
• Habitat : Semi-evergreen, moist deciduous forests, also in sacred groves
• Comments / notes : Occasional along hills up to 1400m.
• Key identification features : Large Climbing shrub
• Flower, Fruit : August-April
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Srikakulam district, West Godavari district
  • Kerala : Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Odisha : Mayurbhanj district, Kandhamal district, Kandhamal district, Bolangir district, Bargarh district
  • Tamil Nadu : Salem district, Coimbatore district, Kanyakumari district, The Nilgiri district
• Native : Sri Lanka
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. ; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Spatholobus parviflorus. Downloaded on 2 April 2025.

Botanical Description

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