Artocarpus hirsutus Lam.

ആഞ്ഞിലി

Family : Moraceae

Synonym : Artocarpus pubescens Willd.

Common Names : Ayani, Anjili, Wild jack

Flowering Period : December – March

Distribution : South India

Habitat : Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains

Uses : Fruits edible, timber yielding, varnish production. The seed is used medicinally. The tree is grown to provide shade in coffee plantations and also as undergrowth in teak plantations. The concreted juice forms a waxy, tough, light brown substance, which when melted, is used as a cement to join broken earthen-ware and stoned ware. The heartwood is yellowish-brown; the sapwood white. The wood is moderately hard, durable; it lasts well in water and is not attacked by white ants. A valuable timber, it is used for house and boat building, furniture, etc.

Key Characters :

Wild jack are evergreen tree, with bark surface dull grey-brown, smooth, exudation milky white, sticky, branchlets hirsute. Leaves simple, alternate broadly ovate. Flowers unisexual, minute, yellowish-green; male in axillary, pendulous, narrowly cylindric; tepals 2, united below; stamen 1; female flowers in axillary ovoid spikes; perianth tubular, ovary superior. Fruit a sorosis, globose or ovoid, echinate, the spines cylindric, straight, hispid.