572
Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth ex Walp.
Synonym
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Galedupa pungam
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Family
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Leguminosae
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Local name
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English- Spotted Gliricidia
Malayalam- Cheemakonna
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Flowering and fruiting
period
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March-May
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Distribution
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Native
of South America; Introduced and now widely grown in India.
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Distribution in Kerala
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All
Districts
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Habitat
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Cultivated
in fields and along fences
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IUCN
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Least concerned
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Endemic/Exotic
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Exotic
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Uses
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It is
used for many other purposes including live fencing, fodder,
firewood, green manure, intercropping, and rat poison.
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Key botanical characters:
Trees
to 8 m high; bark grey, lenticellate; branchlets glandular-pubescent. Leaves
odd-pinnate, alternate, spiral; stipules lateral, cauducous; rachis 8-30 cm,
slender, pulvinate, pubescent; leaflets 7-21, opposite, estipellate;
petiolule 4-7 mm, slender, pubescent; lamina 2.5-8 x 1.5-5 cm, ovate,
ovate-oblong, elliptic-ovate or elliptic-oblong, base obtuse or oblique, apex
acuminate or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous above, glaucous and puberulent
beneath, membranous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent,
intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, 2 cm across, rose-pink,
to 20 cm long racemes; pedicels to 2 cm; calyx campanulate, to 5 mm; lobes
obscure; petals exserted; standard 2 x1.5 cm, orbicular, with 2 callosities
above claw; wings to 2 x0.6 cm, oblong, auricled; keels 2.2 x 0.8 cm,
obovate, incurved; stamens 9+1; staminal tube 1.6 cm; vexillary stamen free; filaments
unequal, 3-4 mm; anthers uniform; ovary half inferior, sessile, 1.5 cm; style
incurved, 4 mm, glabrous; stigma capitate. Fruit a pod, to 15 cm long.
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