Macaranga peltata

 

Family: EUPHORBIACEAE

Malayalam Name(s): Podini, Thodukanni, Uppila, Uppothy, Vatta, Vattakanni

Habit: Tree

Flowering & Fruiting: January-February

Medicinal: Yes

Habitat: Moist deciduous and secondary forests, also in the plains

Description: Dioecious trees, to 18 m high; bark surface pale, greyish-brown mottled with white, smooth, lenticellate; brittle; exudation red, gummy; branchlets thick, terete, glaucous. Leaves simple, alternate, 11-25 x 9-20 cm, ovate-orbicular, deltoid-ovate, ovate or orbicular, apex acute or acuminate, base peltate, margin entire, glabrous or glabrescent, pubescent with reddish glands beneath, coriaceous; stipules large, lateral, ovate-acuminate, reflexed, cauducous; petiole 12-35 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 8-10 ribs from base, palmate, prominent beneath; lateral nerves 7-8 pairs, parallel, regular, prominent, intercostae scalariform, much prominent; margin glandular. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow. Male flowers: in axillary, much branched, dense, tomentose, panicles, concealed in large bracts; bracteoles concave; tepals 3, minute, obovate, cuneate; stamens 2-8, free, shortly connate below, exserted. Female flowers: in panicles simpler than in males, branches racemes with larger bracts; tepals 4, basally connate at base; ovary superior, 2-6-celled, densely glandular, ovule one in each cell; style lateral; stigma sessile, often embracing one side of the ovary, thickly papillose. Frit a capsule, 5-6 mm across, globose, hairy, glandular, black; seed one, black.

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക