Digital Garden

Schleichera oleosa (Lour.) Oken

പൂവനം

Family : SAPINDACEAE

Synonym : Schleichera trijuga Willd.

Common Names : Doodalam, Poovanam, Poovam, Puvam, Puvathi, Ceylon oak, Lac tree, Macassar oil tree

Flowering Period : March-June

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

Habitat : Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains

Uses : Young leaves and shoots edible as raw, cooked in soups or steamed and served with rice. The ripe fruit is eaten raw. Unripe fruits are pickled. An oil obtained from the seed, called macassar oil, is sometimes used for culinary purposes. It contains cyanogenic compounds, which may cause giddiness and should be removed if the oil is used for human consumption. Powdered seeds are applied to wounds and ulcers of cattle to remove maggots. The bark is astringent and is used against leprotic ruptures, skin inflammations and ulcers, while an infusion is taken against malaria. In traditional medicine, the oil obtained from the seed is applied externally to cure itching, acne and other skin afflictions. The bark contains about 10% tannin and a dye.

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bole fluted; bark 10-12 mm thick, surface grey, smooth, brittle. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, exstipulate; leaflets 4-6, opposite or subopposite, 5-15 x 1.8-4.5 cm, elliptic-oblong, ovate or obovate, apex acute or obtuse, base oblique or rarely obtuse, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous; rachis 5.5-11.5 cm, stout, glabrous, swollen at base; lateral nerves 10-23, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers polygamodioecious, 5-6 mm across, greenish-yellow, in axillary spicate panicles. Male flowers: calyx lobes 5, valvate or obscurely imbricate; petals 0; disc complete, with the disc; stamens 7 or 8, free, inserted within the disc; filaments 1.5 mm, pilose; anthers oblong; pistillode small. Bisexual flowers: ovary 2 mm, superior, 3-celled, ovule 1 in each cell; style rigid, terete; stigma 2 or 3 lobed. Fruit a drupe, 16-18 mm across, subcrustaceous, pointed, often echinate with stout rather blunt prickles; seed 1 or 2, enclosed in a pulpy aril which has a pleasant acid taste; testa smooth, brown.