1308

Crateva magna (Lour.) DC., 

Family	:	Capparaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam- . Neermathalam English-Garlic Pear Tree
Flowering and fruiting period	:	March-April
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia and China
Distribution in kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	River banks in semi-evergreen forests
Key botanical characters: Trees, to 10 m high, bark 2-3 mm thick, surface grey, smooth, longitudinally wrinkled. Leaves alternate, digitately trifoliate; rachis 4-12 cm long, slender, grooved above, glabrous; petiolule 4-7 mm long, slender; leaflets 10-20 x 3.5-6 cm, unequal, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or broadly elliptic, base acute, or subacute, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 9-15 pairs, slender, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, creamy white, in terminal corymbs; pedicel to 5 cm long. Sepals 4, 3 mm long, free, oblong, adnate to the lobed disc. Petals 4, ca. 2 cm long, creamy white, often tinged with purple, long-clawed, obovate. Disc incurved, nectariferous. Stamens many, free, longer than the petals, inserted at the base of gynophore; anthers basifixed, filaments spreading. Gynophore 4-5 cm long at anthesis, slender; ovary superior, ellipsoid, 1-[2]-celled, ovules many; stigma sessile, capitate. Fruit a berry, globose or ovoid, yellowish-grey, rind woody, scurfy, 4-5 x 2.5-3.5 cm; seeds brown, embedded in pulp.