Polyalthia fragrans
Family: ANNONACEAE
Malayalam Name(s): Chella, Kodangi, Pullarei, Nedunar.
Habit: Tree
Flowering & Fruiting: September-January
Habitat: Semi-evergreen and evergreen forests
Description: Tall trees, to 30 m; bole straight, buttressed; bark, 10-12 mm thick, surface blackish-grey, mottled with white, smooth, lenticellate; branches horizontal, spreading; young branches tomentose. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, 9-27 x 3-12 cm, elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, base acute, obtuse or rounded, margin entire, glabrous and shiny above, slightly pubescent on the costae and veins beneath; lateral veins 16-21 pairs, close, prominent beneath, intercostae subscalariform; petiole 10-15 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, fragrant, in few flowered cymes from the axils of fallen leaves or on tubercles. Sepals 3, orbicular, 4 x 3 mm, pubescent. Petals 6 (3+3), subequal, linear-lanceolate, tomentose. Stamens numerous, cuneate, connectives concealing the anther cells, anther cells remote; carpels many, oblong-ovoid, slightly curved, stipitate, strigose, stigma broad, slightly bifid, blunt, ovules basal and ascending. Fruit aggregate of berries; berry 3-5, 1.5-2 cm, obliquely ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, blunt, hoary puberulous, ash coloured; seed one, orbicular, ovoid.
