Vateria indica L.

വെള്ളകുന്തിരിക്കം

Family : DIPTEROCARPACEAE

Synonym : Vateria malabarica Blume

Common Names : Pandam, Payin, Painimaram, Perumpiney, Vellappayin, Vellathelly, Vellakundirikkam, Indian copal tree, Piney varnish tree, White dammar

Flowering Period : March – August

Distribution : Western Ghats and in coastal areas

Habitat : Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains

Uses : The seeds contain up to 50% of a solid oil known as 'piney tallow’. This can be used for flavouring food and as a substitute or adulterant for ghee. The bark is used to control fermentation in when making alcoholic beverages such as arrack and toddy. The resin obtained from the tree has the same uses as pine resin. An oil obtained from the seeds is valued locally as an external application to relieve rheumatism. The bark is astringent.

Key Characters :

Vateria indica are evergreen trees, bark greyish, blotched with white and green, smooth; exudation, sticky, resinous; branchlets puberulus. Leaves simple, alternate, oblong, apex, acuminate margin entire. Flowers bisexual, white, fragrant, in terminal panicles. Sepals 5, free, lanceolate. Petals 5, white, obovate. Stamens many, free; filaments hairy. Ovary superior, ovoid-oblong, 3-celled, 2-ovules in each cell. Fruit a capsule, pale brown, ovoid; seed one.