Buchanania lanceolata Wight

കുളമാവ്

Family : ANACARDIACEAE

Synonym : Buchanania lonchophylla Voigt

Common Names : Kulamavu, Malamavu

Flowering Period : November-March

Distribution : South India and Myanmar

Habitat : Semi-evergreen forests

Uses : Seeds edible - raw or cooked. An excellent flavour, somewhat reminiscent of almonds or pistachios. Eaten as a dessert seed and also used in sweetmeats. In some parts of India the dried fruit and seed are baked together to make a sort of bread. Fruit - a pleasant, sweetish, subacid flavour. The gum from the tree is used against leprosy in traditional medicine. The roots are acrid, astringent, cooling, depurative and constipating. They are useful in the treatment of diarrhoea. The leaves are used in the treatment of skin diseases. The bark is used in tanning. An oil is obtained from the seed.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 20 m high, bark dark grey, smooth; blaze red; exudation resinous. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 20-25 mm, slender, grooved above; lamina 10-23.5 x 2.5-4.5 cm, elliptic-lanceolate, elliptic-oblanceolate, elliptic-obovate, linear-lanceolate, oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, base acute or cuneate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 13-20 pairs, pinnate, ascending, prominent, secondary laterals prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, white, 2-3 mm across, in axillary and terminal rusty tomentose panicles; calyx short; lobes 3-5 fid, ovate, pubescent, persistent, imbricate; petals 4-5, ovate-obtuse, reflexed, glabrous; stamens 8-10, 1.2 mm long, free, inserted at the base of disc; filaments subulent; anthers sagittate; disc thick, 8-10 crenate; carpels 5-6, free, superior, seated in the cavity of the disc, only one fertile, hairy at base, ovule pendulous from a basal funicle; style short; stigma truncate. Fruit a drupe, 18 mm long, laterally compressed, 2 valved, red.