Hopea parviflora Bedd.

തമ്പകം

Family : DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Synonym : No synonyms are recorded for this name.

Common Names : Irumbagam, Iripu, Kambagam, Thambagam, Urippu, Iron wood of Malabar, White Kongu, Hopea

Flowering Period : January-June

Distribution : Southern Western Ghats

Habitat : Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, along in the plains in sacred groves

Uses : Timber yielding.

Key Characters :

Evergreen trees, to 35 m high, bole straight, buttressed, bark 6-10 mm, light brown or grey, mottled with white, rough vertically fissured, fibrous; branchlets reddish-brown, slightly pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, 8-11.5 x 3-5 cm, ovate, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute or glabrous, apiculate, base acute obtuse, cordate or subcordate, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint, domatia present; petiole 10-12 mm, slender, pubescent when young, glabrous when matured, grooved above; stipules small, lateral, deciduous. Flowers bisexual, 3-4 mm across, creamy yellow, in unilateral terminal and upper axillary, tomentose racemose panicles. Sepals 5, 3 mm long, tomentose outside. Petals 5, 6 mm long, oblong, glabrous, fimbriate at apex. Stamens 5, rarely 10, slightly connate; connective of anthers produced into a subulate point. Ovary superior, glabrous, ovules 2 in each cell; style short, subulate. Fruit a nut, 5-6 mm long, terete, glabrous; wings 2, 6 x 1.8 cm, 8-10 nerved, glabrous.