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Xylocarpus mekongensis Pierre
Much branched, deciduous tree upto 20 m high, buttresses very insignificant or absent. Well developed aerial root-suckers or peg-like pneumatophores are present. Bark dark red to almost blackish, longitudinally fissured. Leaf compound, usually with 4 leaflets, paripinnate, opposite, superimposed or alternate, cauline, exstipulate Lamina ovate-elliptic or elliptic entire, slightly mucronate, cup-shaped, apex acute, dark green, unicostate, reticulate venation Inflorescence 10-35 flowered, panicle, upto 8 cm long, mainly axilllary Flowers irregular, tetramerous, erect. pedicellate Sepals 4, free, valvate, ovate, 0.15 cm long and 0.2 cm broad, green, blunt, entire, coriaceous, glabrous, deciduous petals 8, gamopetalous, globose tube, basal periphery larger than the apical periphery, 8 apical short lobe, lobe ovate, petal white, thin, herbaceous, glabrous, deciduous, shorter than calyx Stamens 8, epipetalous, attached at the notch of apical lobe, short filament, white, round, glabrous, soft, dorsifixed, anther bilobed, longitudinal dehiscence, introrse, globose, inserted, inferior Carpels 8, syncarpous, ovary superior, globose, 8 chambered, two ovules in each chamber, axile placentation, style 1, terminal 0.1 cm long, round, soft, gradually tapering, white glabrous Stigma 1, flat 0.1 cm diam Fruit smaller than X. granatum upto 10 cm diam., green, leathery, contains 4-10 seeds, buoyant, dispersed by water currents. Economic Importance : Timber yielding plant. Bark is astringent and used in dysentry, diarrhoea and other troubles and febrifuge. |
