Oroxylum indicum

Family: BIGNONIACEAE

Malayalam Name(s): Aralu, Palakapayyani, Payyazhantha, Valpathiri, Vellapathiri, Veluthapathiri

English name(s): Indian trumpet flower, Broken Bones Plant, Tree of Damocles

Habit: Tree

Flowering & Fruiting: July-December

Medicinal: Yes

Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, also in the plains

Description: Medium sized trees, to 12 m high; bark 5-6 mm thick, surface brownish-grey; bole smooth. Leaves compound, 2-3 pinnate, pinnae 5-9; imparipinnate, opposite; leaflets 3-5 in each pinnae, opposite, 7.5-15 x 4-9 cm, ovate, apex acuminate, base cordate, oblique or truncate, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; rachis 60-100 cm, stout, glabrous; lateral nerves, 4-6 pairs, pinnate, prominent, puberulent beneath; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, in lax terminal racemes, reddish-purple outside, pinkish-yellow within, racemes to 30-50 cm long; pedicels 1-2 cm long. Calyx 2.5 cm long, campanulate, coriaceous, glabrous, limb truncate or obscurely toothed. Corolla ca10 cm long, fleshy, campanulate, 5-lobed, lobes 3 cm long. Stamens 5, perfect, the posterior one shortest, filaments inserted below the base of the tube, filaments hairy at base; connective with a short mucrone. Ovary subsessile, contracted at the base; ovule many; style slender; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a capsule, 40-75 x 5-8 cm, 2 valved, compressed, tapering at both end; seeds thin, papery, 5-6 cm long, winged all around except at base.

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക