89
Hopea
ponga (Dennst.) Mabb.
Synonym : Hopea wightiana Wall. ex
Wight & Arn.
Family
: Dipterocarpaceae
Local Names
: Kambakam, Thingam
Flowering
and fruiting period:
March – June
Distribution: Southern Western
Ghats
Habitat: Evergreen and
semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains in sacred groves
IUCN
status:
Endangered
Endemic: Yes
Uses: Sacred Indian plant,
Timber yielding. Root decoction taken orally for piles. Bark paste mixed with
milk taken to minimize spreading of poison during snake bite
Key
Characters:
Hopea ponga are evergreen trees with
bark dark grey, smooth, exfoliations large. Leaves simple, alternate,
ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong or ovate, base rounded, or obtuse, apex acute.
Flowers bisexual, yellowish-pink, in axillary unilateral drooping racemose
panicles. Sepals 5, two outer sepals obtuse, larger than the 3 acute inner
ones. Petals 5, ovate-lanceolate, pubescent. Stamens 10 or 15. Ovary superior,
3-celled, ovules 2 in each
