1144

 Adenanthera pavonina L.

 

Synonym	:	Corallaria parvifolia Rumph.
Family	:	FABACEAE
Local name	:	Malayalam- Manchadai,. .
Flowering and fruiting period	:	January-September
Distribution	:	Sri Lanka, North East India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malesia and China
Distribution in kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Planted as ornamental tree
Uses	:	a decoction of the young leaves and bark of Adenanthera pavonina is used to treat diarrhoea
Key Botanical Characters:  Deciduous trees; to 20 m high; bark grey to reddish-brown, smooth, blaze dull yellow; branchlets sparsely to densely minutely tomentellous to glabrous. Leaves bipinnate, alternate, stipulate; stipules minute, free, lateral, cauducous; rachis 14.5-62.5 cm long, stout, pulvinate, grooved above, glabrous, with a gland at the tip; pinnae 2-3 pairs, 2-42 cm, opposite or rarely subopposite, even pinnate, slender, grooved above, pulvinate, puberulent; leaflets 8-20, alternate, estipellate; petiolule up to 3 mm long; lamina 1.3-8×. 8-4.2 cm, oblong, oblong-elliptic, base slightly oblique and truncate, apex round, emarginate or obtuse and mucronate, margin entire, puberulent above and glaucous beneath, chartaceous; lateral nerves 9-10 pairs, parallel, slender, obscure, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, pale yellow, 6 mm across, clustered in axillary spiciform racemes; bracts to 5 mm, linear, bracteole to 1 mm, pedicel to 3 mm; calyx tube campanulate, 1 mm, 5 toothed, pubescent; petals 5, connate below, linear-lanceolate, upto 4.5 mm long, glabrous; stamens 10, free, filaments filiform, alternately long and short; anthers oblong, ending in a stipitate gland; ovary subsessile, flat, 3 mm; style 2 mm, filiform; stigma simple. Fruit a pod 10-25 x 0.7-1.5 cm, straight to falcate to slightly twisted, spirally coiled after dehiscence, thin, septate within, tapered at base, apex acute, glabrous; seeds 6-15, 8-10 x 7-9 mm, elliptic-lenticular, glossy, red.