Aegle marmelos
Malayalam Name(s): Koolakam, Koovalam, Vilvam, Mavilavu
Tamil name(s): Bilva
English name(s): Bael tree, Bengal quince, Holy fruit tree, Indian Bael, Stone apple, Wood Apple
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: March-May
Medicinal: Yes
Habitat: Grown in temple premises and homesteads
Distribution: India and Sri Lanka; widely cultivated in South East Asia, Malesia, Tropical Africa and the United States
Description: Trees to 12 m tall, deciduous; branchlets cylindric, sometimes slightly angled, glabrous; spines axillary, solitary or paired, straight, stout and sharp. Leaves alternate-3-foliolate, sometimes 5-foliolate, dimorphic, leaflets subsessile, ovate-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, tapering at apex, oblique at base, shallowly crenate-serrate at margin, membranous, pellucid-punctate, pale green; petioles terete to 6 cm long, glabrous or puberulous when young. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, racemose or corymbose, few-flowered, 4-5 cm long; peduncles densely puberulent; pedicels 2-4 mm long. Flowers bisexual, greenish white or yellow, fragrant. Calyx cupular, finely puberulent, caducous; lobes 4 or 5, 3-angled. Petals 5, ovate-oblong, subequal, ca 12 x 6 mm, spreading, glabrous, fleshy and white. Stamens numerous in 2 or 3 series, free or basally subconnate, unequal; filaments subulate, ca 7 mm long, glandular; anthers linear-oblong, ca 8 mm long. Disc glabrous, greenish. Ovary ovoid, 4-5 mm long, faintly ridged, 10-loculed; ovules many, 2-seriate; style short; stigma oblong, longitudinally grooved. Berries ovoid, 6-10 cm across, woody, yellowish, many seeded; seeds oblong and flat.
മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക