1384

                                                Connarus  paniculatus Roxb.

Synonym	:	Connarus paniculatus subsp. tonkinensis (Lecomte) Y.M.Shui
Family	:	Connaraceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	October-May
Distribution	:	India, Bangladesh, Indo-China and Malaya Peninsula
Distribution in Kerala	:	Kollam, Kannur, Palakkad, Wayanad
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests
Key botanical characters: Large shrubs or lianas; bark minutely lenticelled, reddish brown; innovations minutely ferruginous-tomentose, early glabrescent. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, glabrous; rachises 4-20 cm long; leaflets 3-7, elliptic-ovate or oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, narrow to rounded or subpeltate at base, obtusely acuminate at apex, 4-20 x 2.5-6.5 cm, rigidly chartaceous, shining, densely and distinctly areolate-reticulate beneath; lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, arcuate, ascending or patent; petiolules ca 5 mm long. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, panicled, 10-40 cm long; peduncles 2-18 cm long, densely ferruginous-tomentose to glabrescent; pedicels rusty- tomentose; bracts scaly, minute. Sepals boat-shaped, obtuse, ca 3 mm long, rusty-tomentose and glandular-punctate on both sides. Petals narrowly spatulate, obtuse, ca 6 mm long, yellow or white and sparsely puberulous outside, white and glandular-punctate inside. Stamens 10, all fertile; filaments connate at base for ca 1 mm, glandular-pubescent. Ovary red. Follicles obovoid or oblong, laterally compressed-inflated, obtuse or acutely apiculate at oblique lateral apex, attenuate at base with ca 5 mm long slender stalk, 2-3.5 x 1.6-1.8 cm, bright red turning brown when dry; ventral suture curved, keeled, the dorsal gibbous; valves thin, coriaceous, glabrous outside, reddish brown, densely pubescent to glabrescent and glandular inside; seeds compressed, 2-2.5 x 1-1.5 cm, black with cupular yellow aril towards the basal ¼.