742

Symplocos racemosa Roxb.

Synonym	:	Symplocos intermedia Brand
Family	:	Symplocaceae
Local name	:	English - Lodh tree Malayalam - Velutha Pachotti
Flowering and fruiting period	:	December-February
Distribution	:	India to Indo-China
Distribution in Kerala	:	Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Kannur, Palakkad, Kollam,  Thiruvananthapuram, Wayanad
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests
Endemic/Exotic	:	North East India
Uses	:	Bark is used in the treatment of eye disease, skin diseases, ear diseases, liver and bowel complaints, tumours, uterine disorders, spongy and bleeding gums, asthma, fever, snake-bite, gonorrhoea and arthritis.
Key Botanical Characters: Trees, up to 10 m high, bark greyish, smooth; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, apex acute to acuminate, base acute, margin crenate-serrate, recurved, glabrous, shiny, coriaceous. Flowers bisexual, in spikes, to 12 cm long, fulvus tomentose, many flowered; bracts ovate, cauducous; bracteoles early cauducous. Calyx tube adnate to the ovary, lobes 5, triangular, acute, glabrous. Corolla deeply 5-lobed. Stamens numerous, unequal, many seriate, adnate to the corolla tube; anthers short. Ovary inferior, ovules 2-3 in each cell, pendulous from the inner angle; style filiform. Fruit a drupe ovoid, glabrous, shallowly furrowed, yellow, stone woody; seeds 1-2, oblong.