Hydnocarpus pentandra (Buch. -Ham.) Oken

H. laurifolia (Dennst) Sleum.                        

H. wightiana 81.

FLACOURTIACEAE (Bixaceae)

 

Vernacular names:

Kannada         - Chaal moogra yenne mara, Suranti, Mirolha kai

Malayalam      - Marotti, Neeratti

Marathi          - Kadu-kavata, Kantel

Sanskrit         - Garudaphala, Tuvrak

Tamil             - Maravattai, Neeradi-muthu

Telugu           - Adi-badam, Niradi

 

Threat status:

Vulnerable (A 1 c,d) - Globally

 

Habit: Tree

 

Habitat: Along the watercourse from moist deciduous to semi-evergreen forests

 

Altitude: Up to 850 m

 

Distribution: Endemic to Southern India. Regional: Common in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

 

Description: Trees, 10-25 m tall. Trunk often fluted. Bark about 5 mm thick, smooth, easily brittle, brownish grey, mottled with white patches.

Blaze creamy yellow. Young branch lets brown, pubescent. Leaves alternate, elliptic-Ianceolate to elliptic-oblong, 5-20 x 3-8 cm, base rounded, apex acuminate, margin toothed with saw-like teeth, dark green and shiny above and paler beneath, minutely hairy along midrib and veins above when young; lateral nerves 5-6 pairs; leaf stalks up to 1 cm long, minutely golden hairy. Male flowers 3-6 in a cluster, green, about 6 mm across. Female flowers solitary, about 1 cm across. The floral stalks about 8 mm long, golden hairy. Fruits globose or obovoid, 5-7 cm across, beaked at apex, brown tomentose, sometimes vertically 5-ridged. Seeds 15-20, embedded in pulp, about 2 cm long, slightly angled.

 

Phenology: Flowering & Fruiting: November to January; February to June

 

Medicinal uses: The seed oil is used in the treatment of leprosy, rheumatic arthritis, worms, diabetes, body swellings and other skin diseases.

 

Trade information: Local, regional and national. Oil from seeds_of several species of Hydnocarpus are traded as Chalmoogra oil. Fresh seeds a recorded a price of As. 16/kg. (Kerala, 1993).

 

Mode of propagation: By seeds

 

Special characters: Its occurrence along watercourses, leaves with saw-toothed margin and brown tomentose ridged woody fruits are important field characters.

 

f!ydnocarpus species (of Western Ghats)

 

DiHerentiating characters:

 

Characters	H. pentandra	H. macrocarpa	H. alpina
Leaf margin	Toothed with	Entire	Entire
	saw-like teeth
Status of	Male & female	Male, female &	Male & female
flower		bisexual
No. of petal	5	12-16	5
No. of	5	50-60	5
stamens
Fruit	About 7 cm across,ridged, smooth,withapical beak	About 15 cm across,smooth, without beak	About 7 cm across, without beak
No. of seeds	15-20	About 50	10-12