Amherstia nobilis Wall.

ശിംശിപ വൃക്ഷം

Family : FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE (Subfam.: Caesalpinioideae)

Synonym : No synonyms are recorded for this name.

Common Names : Simshipa-vriksham, Pride of Burma, Orchid Tree

Flowering Period : May-August

Distribution : Native of Myanmar, grown as ornamental tree

Habitat : Grown as garden plant

Uses : Ornamental, young leaves edible

Key Characters :

Trees, bark dark brown, lenticellate; young parts puberulent. Leaves paripinnate, alternate; stipules 2.5 cm long, intra petiolar, ovate-lanceolate; rachis 20-34 cm long, stout, pulvinate, glabrous; leaflets 8-14, opposite, estipellate; petiolule to 10 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 9.5-25 cm x 4.5-6 cm, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, oblong or elliptic-oblong, base obtuse, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 7-20 pairs, pinnate, prominent, secondary laterals prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers15 x 12 cm, bisexual, yellowish-red, in drooping terminal panicles to 62 cm long; pedicels to 7 cm long; bracts and sepals bright red; bracts to 6 cm long, ovate; calyx tube to 4 cm long, lobes rolled to back, petals 4.5-7.5 cm long, mixed reddish and yellow; stamens 9, tube to 4 cm long, filaments alternately long and short; anthers dimorphic, versatile; ovary half inferior, pubescent, stipe to 1 cm long; style curved; stigma capitate. Fruit a pod, 15-20 x 3.5-4 cm, oblong, brown, compressed; seeds 3-6.