Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa

കൂവളം

Family : RUTACEAE

Synonym : Crataeva marmelos L.

Common Names : Koolakam, Koovalam, Vilvam, Mavilavu, Bilva, Bael tree, Bengal quince, Holy fruit tree, Indian Bael, Stone apple, Wood Apple

Flowering Period : March-May

Distribution : India and Sri Lanka; widely cultivated in South East Asia, Malesia, Tropical Africa and the United States

Habitat : Grown in temple premises and homesteads

Uses : Sacred Indian Plant. Fruits are eaten fresh or made into jam and drinks. The young leaves can be eaten as salad. The sliced, sun-dried fruit are used to improve appetite, and to treat diarrhoea and dysentery. The pulp is also used to treat respiration disorders. Flowers are distilled to make perfumes. Fruit pulp is used as detergent. The wood is hard but not durable, used to make handles of small tools.

Key Characters :

Trees to 12 m tall, deciduous; branchlets cylindric, sometimes slightly angled, glabrous; spines axillary, solitary or paired, straight, stout and sharp. Leaves alternate-3-foliolate, sometimes 5-foliolate, dimorphic, leaflets subsessile, ovate-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, tapering at apex, oblique at base, shallowly crenate-serrate at margin, membranous, pellucid-punctate, pale green; petioles terete to 6 cm long, glabrous or puberulous when young. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, racemose or corymbose, few-flowered, 4-5 cm long; peduncles densely puberulent; pedicels 2-4 mm long. Flowers bisexual, greenish white or yellow, fragrant. Calyx cupular, finely puberulent, caducous; lobes 4 or 5, 3-angled. Petals 5, ovate-oblong, subequal, ca 12 x 6 mm, spreading, glabrous, fleshy and white. Stamens numerous in 2 or 3 series, free or basally subconnate, unequal; filaments subulate, ca 7 mm long, glandular; anthers linear-oblong, ca 8 mm long. Disc glabrous, greenish. Ovary ovoid, 4-5 mm long, faintly ridged, 10-loculed; ovules many, 2-seriate; style short; stigma oblong, longitudinally grooved. Berries ovoid, 6-10 cm across, woody, yellowish, many seeded; seeds oblong and flat.