Mesua ferrea L.

 
  • Family : CLUSIACEAE
    (Garcinia Or Kokam Family)
  • Family (Hindi name) : KOKAM FAMILY (कोकम फैमिली)
  • Family (as per The APG System III) : Calophyllaceae
  • Synonym(s) : Calophyllum nagassarium Burm.f.; Mesua nagana Gardner; Mesua nagassarium (Burm.f.) Kosterm.; Mesua pedunculata Wight; Mesua roxburghii Wight; Mesua salicina Planch. & Triana; Mesua sclerophylla Thwaites; Mesua speciosa Choisy; Mesua walkeriana Planch. & Triana
  • Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Mesua ferrea L.
  • Common name : Ceylon Iron-Wood, Indian Rose chestnut, Cobra's Saffron, Inagas tree, Ironwood, Mesua, Nagas tree, Penaga Lili
  • Vernacular name :
    • Nagasampige (Kannada)
    • Naga kesaram, Uppachettu (Telugu)
    • Nagesar, Nageswar (Oria)
    • Nagakesara (Sanskrit)
    • Churuli, Eliponku, Nagachempakam, Nagakesaram, Nagapoovu, Nangakilkuru, Nangu, Peri, Seemanagapoovu, Vayanaavu, Veluthapala (Malayalam)
    • Nagchampa, Nagchapha, Thorachmpa (Marathi)
  • Habit : Tree
  • Habitat : Tropical evergreen forests, near streams
  • Comments / notes : The wood is dark reddish brown, very hard, heavy and strong. The wood is extensively used in Assam for railway sleepers
  • Key identification features : Moderate-sized or large tree, with a thin greyish-brown bark, often with white patches and peeling in flakes. Flowers large, solitary or in pairs, silvery-white with bright yellow anthers.
  • Flower, Fruit : April-November
  • Distribution :
    • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
    • Odisha : Ganjam district, Mayurbhanj district, Angul district, Keonjhar district, Cuttack district
    • Tamil Nadu : Coimbatore district, Kanyakumari district, Madurai district, The Nilgiri district, Tirunelveli district
    • Arunachal Pradesh : Arunachal Pradesh
    • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
    • Assam : Assam
    • Nagaland : Nagaland
    • Delhi : Delhi
    • Mizoram : Mizoram
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands : South Andaman,Rutland and Baratang Islands
    • Manipur : Manipur
    • Tripura : Nagaland
  • World Distribution : India, Andaman and Nicobar (India), Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam
  • Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
  • Literature :
    • H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1
    • H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa
    • Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1
    • Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
    • Parkinson, C.E. 1923. A Forest Flora of the Andaman Islands, Govt. of India, Shimla: 88
  • Read more :
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Mesua ferrea. Downloaded on 13 October 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings

Field Image(s)

Habitat

India Distribution

World Distribution

Creative Commons License
India Flora Online by Herbarium JCB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.