785

Sterculia guttata Roxb. ex DC.

Family	:	Malvaceae
Local name	:	Malayalm - Peenari
Flowering and fruiting period	:	September-March
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains
Uses	:	Seed extracts are mainly used as insecticides against mosquito larvae and leaves are used as repellent.
Key Botanical Characters: Deciduous trees, to 20 m high; bole straight, bark greyish-brownish. Leaves simple, alternate, broadly ovate-oblong, ovate or broadly obovate-oblong, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base obtuse, subcordate or truncate, margin entire. Flowers polygamous, white, dotted with pink, arranged in simple cymes of 3. Calyx greenish out side, reddish inside, campanulate, clothed with stellate hairs, united to middle; lobes 5, acute, ultimately reflexed. Petals absent. Male flowers: staminal column recurved, anthers 10-12 arranged at tip, column hairy at apex; bisexual flowers: ovary 5, free, superior; style stout, deflexed. Fruit an aggregate of 1-5 radiating follicles, obovoid, red tomentose, smooth and pink within; seeds ovoid, black, smooth, shining.