878

Hopea parviflora Bedd.

Family	:	Dipterocarpaceae
Local name	:	English-Iron wood of Malabar Malayalam–Irumbagam
Flowering and fruiting period	:	January-June
Distribution	:	Southern Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, along in the plains in sacred groves
IUCN status	:	Vulnerable (VU)
Endemic/Exotic	:	Endemic to: Southern Western Ghats
Uses	:	The wood can be used in construction, shipbuilding, making rice mills
Key botanical characters : Evergreen trees, to 35 m high, bole straight, buttressed, light brown or grey, mottled with white, rough vertically fissured, fibrous; branchlets reddish-brown, slightly pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, , ovate, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute or glabrous, apiculate, base acute obtuse, cordate or subcordate, coriaceous; petiole slender, pubescent when young, glabrous when matured, grooved above; stipules small, lateral, deciduous. Flowers creamy yellow, in unilateral terminal and upper axillary, tomentose racemose panicles. Sepals 5, tomentose outside. Petals 5, oblong, glabrous, fimbriate at apex Fruit a nut, , terete, glabrous; wings 2, 8-10 nerved, glabrous.