Sterculia guttata Roxb. ex DC.

ആനത്തൊണ്ടിമരം

Family : STERCULIACEAE

Synonym : Clompanus malabarica Kuntze 

Common Names : Aanathondimaram, Kavalam, Kithondi, Narukorumban, Peenari, Potta-kavalam, Thondi

Flowering Period : September-March

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

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

Uses : The bark yields a valuable cordage. The bark of the younger parts of the tree abounds with very strong, white, flaxen fibre which is used to make a kind of coarse cloth.

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees, to 20 m high; bole straight; bark 15-25 mm thick, greyish-brownish, smooth, exfoliating in thin scales; branchlets stellate-tomentose. Leaves simple, alternate, 12-25 x 6-15 cm, broadly ovate-oblong, ovate or broadly obovate-oblong, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base obtuse, subcordate or truncate, margin entire, glabrous above, stellate-tomentose beneath, coriaceous; 3-5-ribbed from base, prominent, lateral nerves 5-7 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform, prominent; petiole 25-50 mm long stout, swollen at both ends, stellate-tomentose; stipules lateral, ensiform, cauducous. Flowers polygamous, white, dotted with pink, arranged in simple cymes of 3, also on peduncle of short rusty-pubescent axillary racemes; bracts lanceolate. Calyx greenish out side, reddish inside, campanulate, clothed with stellate hairs, united to middle; lobes 5, acute, ultimately reflexed. Petals absent. Male flowers: staminal column recurved, anthers 10-12 arranged at tip, column hairy at apex; bisexual flowers: ovary 5, free, superior, globose, strigose with stellate hairs; gynophore stout, round; style stout, deflexed. Fruit an aggregate of 1-5 radiating follicles, obovoid, red tomentose, smooth and pink within; seeds ovoid, black, smooth, shining.