Poeciloneuron pauciflorum
Beddome, Fl. Sylv. t. 93. 1871; Dyer in Fl. Brit. India 1: 278. 1874.
Mal.: Puli-vayila, Pudangalli; Tam.: Puthengkolli or Puthangakolli.
Evergreen trees, up to 18 m tall and 2 m in girth; wood red, hard, heavy; branchlets clothed with minute hairs; terminal bud enclosed by leaf bases. Leaves opposite, 10 - 13 (- 17) x 3 - 4 cm, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, attenuate or narrowed at base, bluntly long acuminate at apex, glabrous, slightly recurved along margins; secondary nerves curving towards margin; petioles 10 - 12 mm long. Flowers up to 4 in fascicles, sometimes solitary or paired and terminal or at each node in axils of fallen leaves, white, ca 1- 1.2 cm across; bracts ca 3 mm long, triangular. Sepals 4, unequal, inner 2 larger, ca 6 mm long, outer 2 ca 2 mm long, puberulous without. Petals 6, imbricate, glabrous. Stamens 16 - 25 in 2 whorls, inserted on a disc below ovary; anthers 4 - 5 mm long, linear, smooth. Ovary ca 2 mm long, bilocular, ovules erect, 2 in each locule; styles 2, ca 3.5 mm long. Capsules ca 2.5 cm long, ca 1.2 cm in diam., obpyriform at first, finally becoming ovoid or globose, with persistent sepals and stylar base, dehiscing into 2 coriaceous valves, 1-loculed, 1-seeded. Seeds ca 1 x 0.7 cm, spherical, hard, testa loose, membran-ous, striated, easily separable from the seed.
Fl. & Fr. March.
Distrib. India: In evergreen forests between 600 and 1200 m, often on river banks of Southern Western Ghats. Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli) and Kerala (Travancore).
Endemic.
Notes. Timber is valuable and is used for making walking sticks, for building purposes, etc.
Evergreen trees, up to 18 m tall and 2 m in girth; wood red, hard, heavy; branchlets clothed with minute hairs; terminal bud enclosed by leaf bases. Leaves opposite, 10 - 13 (- 17) x 3 - 4 cm, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, attenuate or narrowed at base, bluntly long acuminate at apex, glabrous, slightly recurved along margins; secondary nerves curving towards margin; petioles 10 - 12 mm long. Flowers up to 4 in fascicles, sometimes solitary or paired and terminal or at each node in axils of fallen leaves, white, ca 1- 1.2 cm across; bracts ca 3 mm long, triangular. Sepals 4, unequal, inner 2 larger, ca 6 mm long, outer 2 ca 2 mm long, puberulous without. Petals 6, imbricate, glabrous. Stamens 16 - 25 in 2 whorls, inserted on a disc below ovary; anthers 4 - 5 mm long, linear, smooth. Ovary ca 2 mm long, bilocular, ovules erect, 2 in each locule; styles 2, ca 3.5 mm long. Capsules ca 2.5 cm long, ca 1.2 cm in diam., obpyriform at first, finally becoming ovoid or globose, with persistent sepals and stylar base, dehiscing into 2 coriaceous valves, 1-loculed, 1-seeded. Seeds ca 1 x 0.7 cm, spherical, hard, testa loose, membran-ous, striated, easily separable from the seed.
Fl. & Fr. March.
Distrib. India: In evergreen forests between 600 and 1200 m, often on river banks of Southern Western Ghats. Tamil Nadu (Tirunelveli) and Kerala (Travancore).
Endemic.
Notes. Timber is valuable and is used for making walking sticks, for building purposes, etc.
