• Family : OLEACEAE
  (Olive Or Jasmine Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : MOGRA FAMILY (मोगरा फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : OLEACEAE
• Basionym : Forsythia mala-elengi Dennst.
• Synonym(s) : Chionanthus mala-elengi (Dennst.) Green; Chionanthus malabaricus (Wall.ex G.Don) Bedd.; Chionanthus mala-elengi subsp. mala-elengi
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Chionanthus mala-elengi subsp. mala-elengi
• Vernacular name : Soorkili, Porumbalu (Tamil); Punnagamu, Punicce, Chedda neredu (Telugu); Pochandia (Oria); Kallidala, Mala-elengi, Perumbal (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Semi-Evergreen forests
• Comments / notes : Rare near streams.
• Flower, Fruit : November-April
• Collection Nos : HFP 2567, CJS 15957
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Kadapa district, Vishakapatnam district
  • Karnataka : Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada district
  • Kerala : Kasaragod district, Kannur district, Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Kottayam district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
  • Odisha : Similipal Hills (Mayurbhanj district), Nayagarh district, Keonjhar district, Puri Hills (Puri district), Angul district, Cuttack district
  • Tamil Nadu : Tiruvannamalai district, Vellore district, Salem district, Dharmapuri district, Dindigul district, Kanyakumari district, Theni district
• Native : India
• Endemism : Peninsular India
• World Distribution : India incl. Andaman & Nicobar Islands
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka; Balakrishna Gowda & A.N. Sringesh 2004 – Sringeri (checklist unpublished); Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Pullaiah et al., 2011 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 4; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 2; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Ravichandran, V. 2016. Taxonomic and Phytogeographical investigation on endemic plants of Western Ghats with special reference to Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary of Tamil Nadu (Ph.D. thesis work)
• 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=Linociera malabarica. Downloaded on 1 July 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)