Digital Garden

Xanthophyllum arnottianum Wight

മടുക്ക

Family : POLYGALACEAE

Synonym : Xanthophyllum angustifolium Wight

Common Names : Madukka, Madakka, Mottal

Flowering Period : Throughout the year

Distribution : Western Ghats

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

Uses : Parts of the plant are used as insecticides.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 10 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, greenish-grey, smooth, semi-fibrous; branchlets puberulus. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, 5-15 x 2.5-7.5 cm, oblong, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, base acute or obtuse, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 5-7 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent; petiole 4-7 mm, slender, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, in terminal or axillary panicled racemes, yellowish-white. Sepals 5, subequal, suborbicular, finely tomentose. Petals 5, yellow, unequal, lower boat-shaped. Stamens 8; filament free, 2 hypogynous, to the base of petals in pairs, others adnate to the base of the petals; disc 5-lobed. Ovary superior, stipitate, globose, densely strigose, 1-celled, ovules 4, 2 erect and 2 pendulous; style curved. Fruit a drupe, 12-18 mm across, globose, green, rugose, 1-seeded.