Dillenia pentagyna Roxb.

കാട്ടുപുന്നക്കായ്

Family : DILLENIACEAE

Synonym : Dillenia augusta Roxb.

Common Names : Kattupunnakai, Kodapunna, Malampunna, Naithekku, Pattipunna, Punna, Valapunna, Vazhapunna

Flowering Period : February-June

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

Habitat : Deciduous forests

Uses : Flower buds edible - raw, cooked or pickled. A pleasant, acidic taste. The immature fruits are also eaten, either raw, cooked or pickled. A paste of the leaves is applied as a poultice to treat scorpion bites. The old leaves contain an abundance of silica and are used as a sand paper. A fibre obtained from the inner bark is used for cordage. The wood is used for planking, house posts and furniture.

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees, to 25 m high, bark 15-20 mm, thick, surface grey, molted with white, smooth; blaze pink-red; branchlets stout, with prominent 'V' shaped leaf scars. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered at the tip of branchlets, 15-60 x 10-25 cm, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, scarious, apex obtuse, base acute or attenuate, margin serrate, rarely entire, glabrous above, puberulent beneath; lateral nerves many, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint; estipulate; petiole 15-60 mm long, sheathing, stout, glabrous, winged. Flowers bisexual, fascicled on old branches, 2.5-3 cm across, yellow, fragrant; pedicels 2.5-6 cm long; bracts hairy. Sepals 5, 8-12 mm long, obovate or elliptic, glabrous, accrescent. Petals 5, 10-20 x 7-12 mm, obovate, obtuse, bright yellow. Stamens numerous, yellow in 2 series, outer series with 60-90 stamens, each 2.5-4 mm long, inner series with up to 10 stamens, each 6-9 mm long. Carpels 5-10, cohering at the axis, arranged on the narrow conical receptacle, unilocular, ovules many; styles free, 4 mm long. Fruit an aggregate of berries, drooping, subglobose, 15 x 13 mm, indehiscent, fleshy, yellow, orange or red, subtended by persistent sepals; seeds numerous, 5 x 3.5 mm, ovoid, black, glabrous, exarillate.