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) : Clompanus alata (Roxb.) Kuntze; Pterygota roxburghii Schott & Endl.; Sterculia coccinea Wall.; Sterculia heynei Bedd.
  • Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Pterygota alata (Roxb.) R.Br.
  • Common name : Buddha's Coconut tree
  • Vernacular name :
    • Kodaittondi, Anaittondi (Tamil)
    • Anathondi, Kavalam, Kudatthanni, Pothondi (Malayalam)
  • Habit : Tree
  • Habitat : Tropical evergreen forests, Tropical semi-evergreen forests
  • Comments / notes : These trees are towering giants of the rain forests of North-East India. Wood Cream-coloured, hard. It la a good avenue tree but easily gets broken by windstorm owing to its height and slenderness
  • 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 Urban district, Bengaluru Rural 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 : Kancheepuram (Changalpattu-CGP) district, The Nilgiri district, Tirunelveli district
    • Sikkim : Sikkim
    • West Bengal : Darjeeling district
    • Arunachal Pradesh : Arunachal Pradesh
    • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
    • Assam : Assam
    • Nagaland : Nagaland
    • Delhi : Delhi
    • Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh
    • Mizoram : Mizoram
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands : Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    • Manipur : Manipur
    • Tripura : Tripura
  • Native : Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hainan, India, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam
  • Exotic/Native : Native
  • World Distribution : Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hainan, India, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam
  • 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.
    • Parkinson, C.E. 1923. A Forest Flora of the Andaman Islands, Govt. of India, Shimla: 99
  • Read more :
  • Permalink : http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Pterygota alata
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2026). India Flora Online. http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Pterygota alata. Downloaded on 30 January 2026.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)

Habitat

Distribution District wise

India Distribution

World Distribution

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