579
Cochlospermum
religiosum (L.) Alston
Synonym
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:
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Bombax religiosum
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Family
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Cochlospermaceae
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Local name
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English- Golden Silk cotton tree
Malayalam- Appakudukka
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Flowering and fruiting
period
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February –March
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Distribution
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Indo-Malesia
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Distribution in Kerala
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Palakkad, Idukki, Kozhikkode,
Thrissur, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad
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Habitat
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Moist and dry deciduous forests
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Endemic/Exotic
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Exotic
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Uses
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Used as medicine for various purposes. The plant is used as sedative, stimulant,
and is used in
gonorrhoea, jaundice, cough, trachoma, syphilis etc. The young leaves
are used for
cooling, and for washing hairs.
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Key botanical characters:
Deciduous trees, bark 20-25 mm thick, surface dark grey, fibrous; Leaves simple, palmately 3-5 lobed, alternate, estipulate; petiole 6-20 cm long, stout, swollen at base, pubescent; base cordate, lobes, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, tips acute or acuminate, margin entire or crenate, serrate, glabrous above, densely white tomentose below, coriaceous; 5-7 nerved from the base, palmate, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers bisexual, bright yellow, in grey tomentose terminal panicles; sepals 5, unequal, obovate, densely tomentose, deciduous; petals 5, obovate, deeply emarginate, contorted; stamens many, inserted on an eglandular disc, shortly connate at base into 8-10 clusters; anthers linear, opening by apical slit; ovary superior, globose, glabrate, , ovules many; filiform; stigma somewhat lobed. Fruit a capsule, obovoid, pear shaped, straight, leathery, brown; seeds many, long, black, curved, embedded in white cotton.  |
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