Digital Garden

Stereospermum colais (Buch.-Ham. ex Dillw.) Mabb.

പൂപാതിരി

Family : BIGNONIACEAE

Synonym :

Stereospermum chelonoides sensu Wight

Common Names : Pathiri, Poopathiri, Pumbathiri, Karingazha, Karinkura, Kouringoura, Trumpet flower, Yellow snake tree

Flowering Period : February-October

Distribution : Indo-China and Malesia

Habitat : Moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests

Uses : Tender young fruits cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Flowers cooked and used as a vegetable. An infusion of the pleasant tasting root, as well as the fragrant flowers, is used as a cooling drink in the treatment of fevers. The juice of the bark is used to treat indigestion. The grey wood is hard, elastic, moderately durable, easy to work. It is used for making furniture, construction, tea boxes, canoes etc. An excellent fuel, the wood also makes a good charcoal.

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees, to 25 m high; bark grey, exfoliating in flat scales. Leaves compound, imparipinnate, opposite; leaflets 5-11, opposite; lamina elliptic or ovate; margin entire or serrulate on young trees, shiny and glabrous above. Flowers bisexual, dull crimson, in drooping panicles; calyx campanulate, lobes 3-5, short, broad; corolla funnel shaped, lobes 5 unequal; stamens 4;didynamous, included, staminodes present; ovary sessile, superior, 2-celled; ovules many; style slender; stigma 2. Fruit a capsule.