Artocarpus hirsutus
Family: MORACEAE
Malayalam Name(s): Anjili, Ayani, Anniliayari
English name(s): Aini, Hirsute Artocarpus, Wild jack
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: December-March
Habitat: Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains
Description: Evergreen trees, to 45 m high, bark 10-15 mm thick, surface dull grey-brown, smooth, lenticellate, exfoliations thin, exfoliated surface red, fibrous; exudation milky white, sticky, branchlets hirsute. Leaves simple, alternate, 13-25 x 7.5-15 cm, broadly ovate, obovate or elliptic, apex subacute or very shortly acuminate, base acute, obtuse or round, margin entire, undulate, coriaceous, glabrous above, hirsute-pubescent beneath; stipules to 4 cm long, lateral, densely tawny strigose; petiole 10-30 mm long, stout, hirsute; lateral nerves 6-12 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers unisexual, minute, yellowish-green; male in axillary, pendulous, narrowly cylindric spikes upto 15 cm long; tepals 2, united below; stamen 1; anther exserted, ovate, bracteoles chaffy; female flowers in axillary ovoid spikes; perianth tubular, confluent below with the receptacle; ovary superior, straight, ovule pendulous; style exserted; stigma undivided. Fruit a sorosis 6-7.5 cm across, globose or ovoid, echinate, yellow when ripe, the spines cylindric, straight, hispid, perforate at the apex for filiform style; seeds 16-18 mm long, ovoid, white.
