1267

 Baccaurea courtallensis (Wight) Muell.-Arg.

Family	:	Euphorbiaceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	January-June
Local name	:	Malayalam-Mootilpazham
Distribution	:	Peninsular India
Distribution in kerala	:	Palakkad, Kasaragode, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikkode, Thrissur, Wayanad, Ernakulam
Habitat	:	Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
IUCN Status	:	Endemic to peninsular India
Key botanical characters :   Evergreen trees to 15 m high; bole uneven with tubercles; bark greyish-yellow,; branchlets terete, rough. Leaves simple, alternate, often clustered towards the tip of branchlets, oblanceolate apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base acute, attenuate or cuneate, margin entire, membranous to chartaceous, scattered white furfuraceous above and beneath,stipules lateral, lanceolate, cauducous; petiole slender, grooved above, glabrescent or puberulous. Flowers unisexual, dark crimson, in densely clustered slender racemes on mature stem. Male flowers: bracts lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or triangular, free, conduplicate, encircling the base of lateral branches; tepals 4-5, linear, oblong, elliptic, suborbicular or oblanceolate, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; stamens 4-8, free; anthers basifixed; pistillode clavate. Female flowers: bracts lanceolate; tepals 4-5, linear, oblong or oblong-elliptic, sparsely puberulous to glabrous, ciliate; ovary superior, ovoid or subglobose, 3-locular, ovules 2 in each cell, 3-angled, tomentose; stigmas 3, flabellate. Fruit a capsule, subglobose, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, 3 locular, thick walled, often with 6 longitudinal ribs, pink-red when ripe, brown when dry, often verrucose, pubescent, dehiscent; seeds 3, oblong, aril white.