Pterygota alata (Roxb.) R.Br.

 
  • Family : STERCULIACEAE
    (Sterculia Or Cocoa Family)
  • Family (Hindi name) : COCOA FAMILY
  • Family (as per The APG System III) : MALVACEAE
  • Basionym : Sterculia alata Roxb.
  • Synonym(s) : Sterculia heynei Bedd.
  • Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Pterygota alata (Roxb.) R.Br.
  • Common name : Buddha's Coconut tree
  • Vernacular name : Kodaittondi, Anaittondi (Tamil); Anathondi, Kavalam, Kudatthanni, Pothondi (Malayalam)
  • Habit : Tree
  • Habitat : Evergreen and semi-Evergreen forests
  • Comments / notes : These trees are towering giants of the rain forests of North-East India.
  • Key identification features : A large deciduous native tree with a heigh, narrow, crown and horizontal branches. Leaves are simple and large. Inflorescence is branched, covered with rusty-brown hairs and is few-flowered. Flowers (about 2.5 cm. wide) are brownish-yellow: males apetalous with sterile ovaries, while bisexual flowers are functionally female. Fruit is woody, dehiscent, about 12 cm. across and minutely reddish-brown-felted outside. Seeds are many and winged. Bark grey and relatively smooth.
  • Flower, Fruit : April-May
  • Collection Nos : Talbot 3633, KFP 582, KFP 12915
  • Distribution :
    • Karnataka : Bengaluru district, Dakshina Kannada district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, Uttara Kannada district
    • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
    • Tamil Nadu : Kanchipuram (Changalpattu-CGP) district, The Nilgiri district, Tirunelveli district
  • Native : India
  • World Distribution : South Asia and Myanmar
  • Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
  • Literature : Flora of Karnataka, Saldanha, 1984; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; 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=Pterygota alata. Downloaded on 23 November 2024.

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