Pterospermum diversifolium Blume

പമ്പരം

Family : STERCULIACEAE

Synonym : Pterospermum glabrescens Wight & Arn.

Common Names : Pambaram

Flowering Period : December-April

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

Habitat : Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests

Uses : The bark and flowers are charred and combined with the glands of Mallotus philippensis in the treatment of smallpox in order to cause suppuration. The fibrous bark is sometimes used to make rope and for tying purposes, however, it has a low tensile strength. The bark is cut into small pieces and boiled to make a dye that is used to colour and strengthen cloth, fish nets, ropes etc. The heartwood is a dull purplish brown, or reddish brown, fading on exposure to a light brown; it is not sharply distinguished from the somewhat paler sapwood. The texture is fine and smooth. The wood is moderately hard and rather tough; moderately heavy; not very durable. It is used for posts (placed above stumps), beams, joists, rafters, flooring, sheathing, ceilings, furniture, cabinetwork, household implements, combs. The wood is used for fuel

Key Characters :

Trees, to 18 m high, bark surface brown mottled with green and white. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, 15-30 x 12.5-25 cm, rectangular-oblong or oblong or rarely panduriform, very variable in young plants and coppice shoots, margin entire, silvery pubescent beneath. Flowers bisexual, white, axillary, solitary or geminate. Cayx tubular, rusty tomentose outside, grey-pubescent within 5-fid; lobes linear-lanceolate. Petals 5, oblong, white, deciduous. Staminal column adnate to the gynophore, bearing 5 groups of 3 stamens each between staminodes. Ovary superior, within the apex of column, 5-celled, ovules many; style entire. Fruit a capsule, 10-12.5 x 2-2.5 cm, oblong, 5-angled, smooth; seeds winged at one end.