144
Pterospermum rubiginosum Heyne ex Wight &
Arn.
Family
: Sterculiaceae
Local Names
: Chittilaplavu, Ellooti,
Malamthodali
Flowering
and fruiting period:
November – April
Distribution: Southern Western Ghats
Habitat: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
IUCN
status:
Data Deficient
Endemic: Yes
Uses: Ayurvedic, timber yielding
Key
Characters:
Evergreen trees, to 20 m high, bark
brown, flaking off in thin rectangular strips. Leaves simple, alternate,
ovate-lanceolate, margin entire, glabrous above and densely white tomentose
beneath. Flowers bisexual, white, solitary, axillary. Calyx tubular with 5
linear lobes, white silky within. Petals 5, white, linear-oblong. Staminal
column adnate to the gynophore. Ovary superior, 5-celled, ovules many in each
cell. Fruit a capsule, brown; seeds winged at one end.
