422

Vatica chinensis L.

Family	:	Dipterocarpaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam- Adakkapine
Flowering and fruiting period	:	March-June
Distribution	:	South India and Sri Lanka
Distribution in Kerala	:	Alappuzha, Kollam, Malappuram, Kozhikkode, Kannur, Thrissur
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests, also planted as avenue tree
Uses	:	A very useful wood
Key botanical characters: Evergreen trees, to 25 m high, bole buttressed; bark pale green, smooth; exudation resinous; young shoots, buds, outside of perianth exposed in bud, lepidote. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules small, fugacious; petiole 20-50 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 9-25 x 3-11 cm, ovate or oblong, base obtuse or broadly cuneate, apex obtusely acute, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; lateral nerves 10-14 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers bisexual, white, in axillary spreading panicles; pedicels 5-ribbed; ribs alternating with sepals; calyx tube very short, adnate to the base of the ovary; lobes 5, ovoid-deltoid, acute, pubescent; petals 5, white, oblong; stamens 15 in 2 rows; filaments short, flattened at base; anthers oblong, shortly apiculate; ovary superior, covered with large shallow pits, lepidote, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style about as long as ovary, ribbed; stigmas densely papillose, obscurely 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, lepidote, subglobose shortly pointed with 3 obscure, loculicidal furrows, puberulous; pericarp coriaceous; calyx persistent.