Madhuca longifolia
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Family: SAPOTACEAE
Malayalam Name(s): Ilupa, Irippa, Njannal
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: December-July
Medicinal: Yes
Habitat: Banks of rivers in semi-evergreen forests
Description: Trees, to 20 m high, bark grey, 1.3 cm thick, vertically cracked, exfoliating in thin scales; blaze reddish-brown or dark red; exudation milky. Leaves simple, alternate, clustered at the end of branchlets; stipules lateral, lanceolate, cauducous; petiole 20-40 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 10-25 × 6-12 cm, elliptic, base round, obtuse or cuneate, apex acute, acuminate or apiculate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 9-14 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, creamy, axillary; calyx lobes 4 [ 2 +2], obovate, fulvous tomentose, acute; corolla tube 8 mm long, lobes 6-12, oblong; stamens 16, roughly in 3 series; anthers 3.5 mm, sparsely hairy; connectives apiculate; ovary superior, 3 mm long, 6-celled; style 2.5 cm long, exserted, pubescent below; stigma obtuse. Fruit a berry, ovoid, greenish, fleshy, tawny-tomentose with out; pedicel stout; seeds 2.
