423

   Hopea racophloea Dyer in Hook. f.

Family	:	Dipterocarpaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam- Neduvalikongu
Flowering and fruiting period	:	February-May
Distribution	:	Peninsular India
Distribution in Kerala	:	Kollam, Malappuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests
Key botanical characters: Trees, bark dark brown, peeling off in strips, with the lower ends of each strip detached from stem and the upper end still attached to it and curved upwards; branchlets black; echinate galls common. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules small, lateral, deciduous; petiole 5-10 mm, slender, glabrous; lamina 5-11 x 2.5-6 cm, ovate or oblong-lanceolate, base obtuse, round or acute, apex acute or obtusely acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous, lateral nerves 4-6 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform, prominent, domatia present. Flowers bisexual, pinkish-yellow, 2-4 together, in axillary unilateral racemose panicles; sepals 5, equal, spathulate, obtuse, glabrous; petals 5, glabrous inside, hairy outside with a twisted, flattened appendage at apex; stamens 15, slightly connate; connective produced into a subulate point; ovary superior, obconical, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; styles short, subulate; stylopodium nearly as long as ovary, cylindrical, slightly narrowed at base. Fruit a nut, glabrous, closely surrounded by the base of calyx; wings 2, 7.5-8.5 cm long, obtuse, with 7-11 longitudinal nerves, reddish.