Commiphora caudata (Wight & Arn.) Engl. 

കിളിമരം

Family : BURSERACEAE

Synonym :

Protium caudatum Wight & Arn.

Common Names : Idinjil, Kilimaram, Kilippanjimaram, Kizhingil, Kizhuvam, Hill mango

Flowering Period : March-October

Distribution : India and Sri Lanka

Habitat : Dry deciduous forests, also grown in the plains

Uses : Ayurvedic. The endosperm obtained from four or five fresh or dried seeds is taken two times a day for two to three days to relieve stomach ache. The heartwood is grey with darker streaks; the sapwood is white. The wood cuts smoothly.

Key Characters :

Unarmed (except on old wood) trees, to 15 m high, bark green with reddish-brown stripes, peeling off in thin scales. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, estipulate; rachis 5-14 cm long, slender, glabrous; leaflets 3-7, opposite, terminal large; petiolule 5-10 mm, slender, glabrous; lamina 2.7-10.5 x 1-5 cm, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, base cuneate, attenuate or acute, apex caudate-acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; lateral nerves 6-10 pairs, parallel, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers polygamous, small, greenish-yellow, in lax dichotomous axillary panicles; bracts 2, opposite, glandular-hairy; calyx tube narrowly campanulate, fused with disc, glandular-hairy; lobes 4, as long as tube, deltoid; petals 4, broadly linear, reflexed at apex; disc cupular; stamens 8, free, inserted on the margins of disc, alternately long and short; anthers oblong; ovary superior, oblong or ovoid, attenuate into style, 2-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a drupe, globose or ellipsoid, red when ripe with two white longitudinal lines, mesocarp yellow, rarely orange, pyrenes ovoid; seeds solitary.