Macaranga indica
Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 5: 23, t. 1883. 1852 & 6: t. 1949, f. 2. 1853;
Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 446. 1887.
Mal.: Bhoota-thamara; Nep.: Malata.
Trees, (5- ) 10 - 20 m tall; young parts with tawny or rusty fugacious tomentum. Leaves broadly ovate-orbicular, peltate, rounded or subtruncate at base, entire or distantly glandulardentate along margins, shortly cuspidate or acuminate at apex, 7 - 40 x 6 - 36 cm, thinly coriaceous, glabrous or sparsely pubescent and gland-dotted beneath, with 2 large discoid glands at base near the insertion of petioles; basal nerves 9 - 11, palmate; lateral nerves 8 - 12 pairs on midrib; cross nervules parallel; petioles 5 - 30 cm long; stipules oblong-ovate, up to 2 cm long. Male flowers: ca 1 mm across, in dense clusters in bract-axils, along 6 - 14 cm long subpyramidal panicles; bracts linear-spathulate, entire, 5 - 7 mm long, with a conspicuous discoid apical gland; pedicels up to 0.5 mm long; calyx 3 - 5-lobed; lobes ovate, acute, 1.5 - 2 mm across; stamens 3 - 8; anthers 4-loculed. Female flowers: in 5 - 7 cm long shortly peduncled panicles; bracts 1 to few-flowered, linear, with an apical gland; pedicels 2 - 4 mm long; calyx 4-lobed or 4- toothed, ca 2.5 x 1.5 mm; ovary 1-loculed, globose, ca 3 mm across, glandular-pubescent; style lateral, subulate, 4 - 5 mm long. Fruits unilocular or didymous, globose, 4 - 8 mm across, minutely echinate.
Fl. & Fr. Jan. - Dec. (Flowering peaks during Feb. - April and Aug. - Oct.; fruiting throughout the year).
Distrib. India: Tropical and subtropical evergreen forests, shola forests, preferring damp places, from sea level to 1600 m altitude. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra.
Uses. Red-coloured sap from the bark used medicinally to heal sores.
Notes. Chromosome number: 2n = 22 (Mehra & Hans, Taxon 18: 310 - 315. 1969 & Nucleus 15: 64 - 83. 1972; Kothari et al., Taxon 29: 703 - 730. 1980; Devar, Indian J. Forest. 5: 319 - 320. 1982). Devar (l. c) has done Karyo-morphological studies on this species.
Trees, (5- ) 10 - 20 m tall; young parts with tawny or rusty fugacious tomentum. Leaves broadly ovate-orbicular, peltate, rounded or subtruncate at base, entire or distantly glandulardentate along margins, shortly cuspidate or acuminate at apex, 7 - 40 x 6 - 36 cm, thinly coriaceous, glabrous or sparsely pubescent and gland-dotted beneath, with 2 large discoid glands at base near the insertion of petioles; basal nerves 9 - 11, palmate; lateral nerves 8 - 12 pairs on midrib; cross nervules parallel; petioles 5 - 30 cm long; stipules oblong-ovate, up to 2 cm long. Male flowers: ca 1 mm across, in dense clusters in bract-axils, along 6 - 14 cm long subpyramidal panicles; bracts linear-spathulate, entire, 5 - 7 mm long, with a conspicuous discoid apical gland; pedicels up to 0.5 mm long; calyx 3 - 5-lobed; lobes ovate, acute, 1.5 - 2 mm across; stamens 3 - 8; anthers 4-loculed. Female flowers: in 5 - 7 cm long shortly peduncled panicles; bracts 1 to few-flowered, linear, with an apical gland; pedicels 2 - 4 mm long; calyx 4-lobed or 4- toothed, ca 2.5 x 1.5 mm; ovary 1-loculed, globose, ca 3 mm across, glandular-pubescent; style lateral, subulate, 4 - 5 mm long. Fruits unilocular or didymous, globose, 4 - 8 mm across, minutely echinate.
Fl. & Fr. Jan. - Dec. (Flowering peaks during Feb. - April and Aug. - Oct.; fruiting throughout the year).
Distrib. India: Tropical and subtropical evergreen forests, shola forests, preferring damp places, from sea level to 1600 m altitude. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra.
Uses. Red-coloured sap from the bark used medicinally to heal sores.
Notes. Chromosome number: 2n = 22 (Mehra & Hans, Taxon 18: 310 - 315. 1969 & Nucleus 15: 64 - 83. 1972; Kothari et al., Taxon 29: 703 - 730. 1980; Devar, Indian J. Forest. 5: 319 - 320. 1982). Devar (l. c) has done Karyo-morphological studies on this species.
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