Digital Garden

Hopea ponga (Dennst.) Mabb.

കമ്പകം

Family : DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Synonym : Hopea wightiana Wall.ex Wight & Arn.

Common Names : Eyyakam, Illapongu, Irumbakam, Kambakam, Naduvalippongu, Naithambagam, Nayurippu, Pongu, Thingam

Flowering Period : March-June

Distribution : Southern Western Ghats

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

Uses : Timber yielding.

Key Characters :

Evergreen trees, to 20 m high, bole fluted, bark dark grey, smooth, exfoliations large, rectangular or irregular; branchlets pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate¸7.5-24 x 3-7 cm, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong or ovate, base rounded, or obtuse, apex acute, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint ; petioles 5-15 mm long, stout, glabrous, grooved above; stipules small, lateral, deciduous. Flowers bisexual, yellowish-pink, in axillary unilateral drooping racemose panicles. Sepals 5, shortly united at base, ovate, glabrous, two outer sepals obtuse, larger than the 3 acute inner ones. Petals 5, 5-8 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, pubescent. Stamens 10 or 15, alternate filaments with two anthers; appendages of anthers filiform, 4 times longer than anthers. Ovary superior, puberulous above, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; stylopodium glabrous; style short, subulate. Fruit a nut, ovoid, 10-12 mm long; calyx lobes expanded to forms wings, dark red; 2 longer wings 5.5-10 x 1-1.5 cm, 8-nerved, 3 smaller ones unequal.