Garcinia travancorica
Beddome, Fl. Sylv. t. 173. 1872; T. Anderson in Fl. Brit.
India 1: 268. 1874.
Mal.: Malampongu.
Trees, ca 15 m tall, magnificient; branchlets obtusely 4-angled, shiny; wood yellowish-brown, hard, heavy; bark exudes yellow sticky latex. Leaves 8 - 10 x 1.5 2.5 cm, linear-oblong to subspathulate, sometimes broader upwards, rotundate, acute at base, obtuse or blunt at apex, margins revolute, coriaceous, dark green above, pale beneath, midrib stout; lateral veins slender, indefinite, horizontal, close; finely reticulate; petioles 6 - 18 mm long, slender. Male flowers: in trichotomous, short, few-flowered, terminal or subterminal cymes, ca 1 cm in diam, white; pedicels ca 2 - 3 mm long, thickened; sepals 4, orbicular; outer pair much smaller than inner ca 2.5 mm in diam., inner, pair ca 4 mm in diam., concave, decussate. Petals ca 7 mm in diam., rounded, shortly clawed; stamens indefinite, in multifid, polyandrous masses; filaments short; anthers bilocular, linear-oblong, versatile, longitudinally bivalvular; rudimentary pistil columnar, with a circular, peltate stigma. Female flowers: terminal and axillary, slightly larger than male flowers; staminodes ca 5, free, slender, inserted on a hypogynous ring; filaments complanate, linear, in 2 - 3-chotomous branches; anther locules often divaricate, oblong; ovary ca 6 x 4.5 mm, subglobose or pyriform, tetralocular, half-concealed by the large, convex, entire, ca 3 x 7 mm stigma. Berries 3 4 cm in diam., oblong to subglobose, contracted into a short, thick style, with a broad, imbricate stigma, ca 8 mm in diam. at top. Seeds 1 - 2, 2.5 - 2.8 x 1.5 - 1.8 cm, brown, smooth, shiny.
Fl. & Fr. Sept. - May.
Distrib. India: In evergreen montane forests up to 1500 m. Kerala (Travancore) and Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli).
Endemic.
Notes. Wood is brittle, and consequently not used. Yields abundant yellow gamboge, uses of which are not yet known. Cultivated in the Lalbagh Botanic Gardens at Banglaore (Karnataka).
Trees, ca 15 m tall, magnificient; branchlets obtusely 4-angled, shiny; wood yellowish-brown, hard, heavy; bark exudes yellow sticky latex. Leaves 8 - 10 x 1.5 2.5 cm, linear-oblong to subspathulate, sometimes broader upwards, rotundate, acute at base, obtuse or blunt at apex, margins revolute, coriaceous, dark green above, pale beneath, midrib stout; lateral veins slender, indefinite, horizontal, close; finely reticulate; petioles 6 - 18 mm long, slender. Male flowers: in trichotomous, short, few-flowered, terminal or subterminal cymes, ca 1 cm in diam, white; pedicels ca 2 - 3 mm long, thickened; sepals 4, orbicular; outer pair much smaller than inner ca 2.5 mm in diam., inner, pair ca 4 mm in diam., concave, decussate. Petals ca 7 mm in diam., rounded, shortly clawed; stamens indefinite, in multifid, polyandrous masses; filaments short; anthers bilocular, linear-oblong, versatile, longitudinally bivalvular; rudimentary pistil columnar, with a circular, peltate stigma. Female flowers: terminal and axillary, slightly larger than male flowers; staminodes ca 5, free, slender, inserted on a hypogynous ring; filaments complanate, linear, in 2 - 3-chotomous branches; anther locules often divaricate, oblong; ovary ca 6 x 4.5 mm, subglobose or pyriform, tetralocular, half-concealed by the large, convex, entire, ca 3 x 7 mm stigma. Berries 3 4 cm in diam., oblong to subglobose, contracted into a short, thick style, with a broad, imbricate stigma, ca 8 mm in diam. at top. Seeds 1 - 2, 2.5 - 2.8 x 1.5 - 1.8 cm, brown, smooth, shiny.
Fl. & Fr. Sept. - May.
Distrib. India: In evergreen montane forests up to 1500 m. Kerala (Travancore) and Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli).
Endemic.
Notes. Wood is brittle, and consequently not used. Yields abundant yellow gamboge, uses of which are not yet known. Cultivated in the Lalbagh Botanic Gardens at Banglaore (Karnataka).
