1391

                                           Dimocarpus longan Lour.

Synonym	:	Dimocarpus undulatus Wight
Local name	:	English- Longan tree Malayalam-  Malampuvanna
Flowering and fruiting period	:	March-August
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	Palakkad, Idukki, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Wayanad, Kozhikkode
Habitat	:	Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
Uses		The flesh of the fruit is administered as a stomachic, febrifuge and vermifuge, and is regarded as an antidote for poison. A decoction of the dried flesh is taken as a tonic and treatment for insomnia and neurasthenic neurosis. In both North and South Vietnam, the 'eye' of the longan seed is pressed against a snakebite in the belief that it will absorb the venom. ..
Key botanical characters: Evergreen trees, to 18 m, high, bark greyish or reddish-brown, smooth, flaking off in thin scales; blaze reddish; branchlets prominently white lenticellate, reddish-brown tomentose. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, estipulate; rachis 12-18 cm, stout, grooved above, swollen at base, glabrous; leaflets 8-20, subopposite or alternate; petiolule 5-13 mm, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 5-20 x 2.5-6 cm, oblong, elliptic-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, base oblique or acute, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, slightly undulate, glabrous above, glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 14-17 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers polygamous, 5-6 mm across, yellowish-white, in terminal and axillary brown tomentose panicles or racemes; calyx cupular, tomentose; lobes 5 or 6, ovate, saccate at base; petals 5 or 6, oblong, pilose at base, deflexed; disc annular, fleshy, lining the calyx tube; stamens 8 or 10, inserted within the disc; filaments slender, hairy; ovary superior, ovoid, 2 lobed, pubescent, 2-celled, ovule 1 in each cell; style simple; stigma bifid. Fruit a schizocarp of 1-2 cocci, 1-1.5 x 1 cm, globose, reddish-brown, with round tubercles or sometimes nearly smooth; seed one, black, covered by fleshy aril.