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Heritiera fomes
Buch. Ham.
Evergreen tall medium tree, attaining upt o 25 m height Leaf alternate, simple, stipulate, stipules in pairs in each node, petiolate Petioles 1 cm long, terete, gray, slightly woody, inconspicuous Lamina elliptic lanceolate, entire, acute, tapering, coriaceous, slightly hard, dorsiventral Dorsal surface pale green glabrous, ventral surface whitish gray, rough surface with scallt indumentum, unicostate reticulate venation. Inflorescence mixed, ebracteate, peduncle bent and pendulous, much branched Flowers ebracteate, regular, unisexual, achlamydous, small, pedicellate Pedicel 0.65 cm long, terete, pubiscent, soft, easilly dissociate from the thalamus, 0.1 cm long Sepals four - five, gamosepalous, globose, cup-shaped, tube beneath, upper 4-5 apical lobes. Lobes ovate, entire, acute, pubescent, both inner and outer surface leathery. Petals absent Male flower : Stamens 5, fused to form cylinder dumbel known as pistilloid and to form globose structure Anther distinctly bifurcated with apical white beak, yellow, longitudinally dehiscent, minute, introrse, inserted Female flower : Carpels 4-5, apocarpous, loosely attached, 0.25 cm long, each ovary flattened, superior, closely aggregated to form globose structure, single chambered with 1 ovule, basal placentation. Style terminal long, white but after maturation it becomes brown Fruit a cluster of woody indehiscent keeled or winged ripe carpels, knobby with ventral ridge together with a transverse ridge Seeds solitary without vivipary but can float on the tidal water. Economic Inportance : Timber is much superior than teak and used for boat building and other domestic furnitures. It check soil erosion in the tidal forests and loosely consolidated silted up soil.
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