Digital Garden

Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Dubard

ഖിർണി

Family : SAPOTACEAE

Synonym : Mimusops indica A. DC.

Common Names : Khirni, Mullupala, Pazhamunnippala, Pazhamunppala

Flowering Period : September-November

Distribution : Sri Lanka, India, Siam and Indo-China

Habitat : Dry deciduous forests

Uses : The fruit can be eaten fresh or dried. A sweet flavour, but somewhat astringent. A pale yellow oil, known as rayan oil, is obtained from the seed kernels. The bark is added to palm sugar to inhibit fermentation. This species is often used as a rootstock for the sapodilla (M. zapota) in India.

Key Characters :

Evergreen trees, to 20 m high, bark blackish-grey, longitudinally fissured and cracked, rough; blaze crimson red; exudation milky; bole straight. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 8-20 mm, slender, slightly grooved above, glabrous; lamina 5-10 x 3-4.5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-obovate, obovate or ovate-oblong; base acute; apex obtuse or emarginate; margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-20 pairs, closely pinnate, slender, midrib raised below; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, 7 mm across, white, 1 or 2 axillary; pedicel to 3.5 cm long; calyx lobes 6, in 2 series of 3 each, 2.5 x 2 mm, reflexed, ovate, subacute, rusty-tomentose outside; corolla 3 x 1.5 mm, lobes 18 in 3 series of 6 each, valvate; stamen 6-8, alternating with staminodes, bifid; staminodes shorter than stamen, filaments glabrous, lanceolate; ovary pubescent, 12-celled, superior; style 4-5 mm, subulate; stigma simple. Fruit a berry, ellipsoid, 1.5 x 8 mm, reddish-yellow; seed usually one.