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Humboldtia vahliana Wight

Family	:	Fabaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam- Aattuvanchi
Flowering and fruiting period	:	February-April
Distribution	:	Southern Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	Palakkad, Kottayam, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kannur
Habitat	:	Along river banks in semi-evergreen and evergreen forests
IUCN status	:	Endangered (EN)
Endemic/Exotic	:	Endemic to Southern Western Ghats
Uses	:	Bark of the tree is used in biliousness, leprosy, ulcers and epilepsy.
Key Botanical Characters : Trees, to 18 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, dark brown mottled with white; blaze pink; internodes of the branchlets solid, terete, glabrous; branchlets sometimes zig-zag. Leaves paripinnate, alternate; stipules 1lateral, persistent, ovate-cordate, parallel veined, glandular, glabrous, appendages reniform, divergently veined, glandular, glabrous; rachis, stout, obscurely winged, pulvinate, tomentose or not; leaflets 4-8, opposite, estipellate; petiolule, stout, pubescent or not; lamina oblong-lanceolate, base obtuse, apex acuminate, coriaceous, glabrous; lateral nerves 8-14 pairs, pinnate, arched, prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent, shallow depressed glands beneath. Flowers bisexual, white, , in many flowered, axillary brown velvety racemes; bracts lanceolate, acute, villous on both surfaces, persistent; bracteoles 2, connate by base, obovate, rounded at apex, fugacious; calyx tube, lined by the disc, obconical, brown villous; lobes 4, obovate-oblong, rounded at apex, slightly concave; petals 5, , obovate, shortly clawed, broadly rounded at apex, glabrous; stamens 5, perfect, alternating with 5 minute staminodes; filaments, red, pilose upto the middle; anthers versatile; ovary, half inferior, obliquely linear, ovules 3-4; style filiform, pilose at base, reddish; stigma capitate. Fruit a pod, elliptic, compressed, sutures thick valves prominently veined, brown villous; seeds 3-4, almost orbicular, glabrous