Carallia brachiata (Lour.) Merr.
വല്ലഭം
Family : Rhizophoraceae
Synonym : Diatoma brachiata Lour.
Common Names : Vallabham, Fresh water mangrove
Flowering Period : December – May
Distribution : Indo-Malesia and Australia
Habitat : Semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
Uses : Timber yielding. The juice from the macerated leaves is used in the treatment of fevers. The pulverized bark is rubbed on the body in the treatment of smallpox. The leaves and bark are used in local medicine to treat septic poisoning and itch.
Key Characters :
Carallia brachiata are evergreen trees;
bark is dark grey, corky, furrowed; Leaves simple, opposite, obovate, margin
entire, glabrous and glossy. Flowers bisexual, cream coloured, sessile, small,
in short, trichotomous axillary branching cymes, calyx tube campanulate,
valvate; petals reddish, inserted on a crenulate disc; stamens 10-16, inserted
with them on the disc, one of each pair opposite the petal, slightly longer
than the other filament, which is opposite to a sepal; filaments filiform;
anthers small; ovary half inferior, 3-5-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; style
subulate; stigma 4-lobed. Fruit is glossy pink to red round, 5 mm in diameter.
Seeds are kidney-shaped
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Trees of University of Kerala 