Melicope lunu-ankenda (Gaertn.) Hartley

കമ്പിളി

Family : RUTACEAE

Synonym : Euodia lunu-ankenda (Gaertn.) Merr.

Common Names : Kambili, Kanala, Kaneli, Nasakam

Flowering Period : May-July

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

Habitat : Evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests

Uses : The leaves are eaten as a condiment and have been used to flavour food. The roots are used to treat colds and rheumatism. The leaves and flowers are used in the treatment of menstrual disorders and fever. The heartwood is yellow or light orange; it is not clearly demarcated from the lighter coloured sapwood. The texture is moderately fine and even; the grain is straight or shallowly interlocked. The wood is soft to moderately hard and fairly light in weight. It is suitable for interior finishing, paneling, mouldings, veneer and plywood manufacture, general utility furniture, packing cases and boxes, carving and handicraft items

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees, to 18 m high, bark 6-8 mm thick, yellowish-grey, scurfy-muricate, slightly and reticulately fissured, lenticellate; branchlets opposite, minutely pubescent. Leaves trifoliate, opposite; leaflets 3-19.5 x 3-8 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblanceolate or lanceolate grading to obovate, leaflets 3-19.5 x 3-8 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblanceolate or lanceolate grading to obovate, base acute or cuneate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, membranous; rachis 40-80 mm long, stout, pubescent, slightly grooved above; petiolules 5-12 mm long; lateral nerves 8-20 pairs pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers unisexual, white or greenish-yellow, in axillary paniculate cymes, 2-3 mm across; male flowers: ca. 3 mm long; sepals 4, connate at base; ovate-orbicular; petals 4, 2-3 mm long, white, glabrous; stamens 4, inserted at the base of the disc, slightly longer than petals; filaments subulate; anthers oblong; disc annular, thick, 4 or more lobed, densely pubescent; pistillode of 4 rudimentary carpels; female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers; staminodes 4, inserted at the base of the disc; ovary superior, subglobose, pubescent abaxially, 4-lobed, 4-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style short; stigma capitate, 4-grooved. Fruit a capsule, of 4 cocci, each 5-6 mm long, ovoid, brown; seeds oblong, black.