Aphanamixis polystachya (Wallich) R. Parker (MELIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Rohithaca
Description: Towering evergreen trees, reaching heights of up to 20 meters, exhibiting a dense, expansive, umbrella-shaped crown. Leaves alternate, crowded at ends of branchlets, imparipinnate, 20-70 cm long; rachis up to 12 cm long, channeled above; leaflets 9 – 19, opposite or subalternate, oblong-lanceolate or ovate, 8-25 x 4-10 cm, obliquely acute at base, acuminate at apex, entire, glabrous; secondary nerves 12-15 on each side. Flowers in spikes, polygamous, dull-white. Male spikes panicled, as long as leaves; female spikes much shorter. Female flowers larger than male flowers. Calyx 5—lobed with ciliolate margins. Petals 3, broadly elliptic to orbicular, concave. Staminal tube nearly as long as petals; anthers 6, subsessile. Disk tawny-pubescent. Ovary villous. Pistillode with rudimentary ovules. Fruit a capsule, obovoid, up to 4 cm across, 3-valved, smooth, yellow or purplish. Seeds oblong with a scarlet aril.
Flowering: January – December
Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Uses: The wood reddish when fresh, gradually becoming reddish brown, moderately heavy, saws and works well taking a smooth finish and a good polish and durable under cover. It is used for dugouts, canoes, roof structures and light construction works. Bark astringent, antihelmintic, used in diseases of liver and spleen, anorexia, abdominal complaints, tumors, ulcers, muscular pains, wounds, leucorrhoea, obesity, diseases of blood, eye and ear; pounded bark in poultice form applied in rheumatism; seeds laxative, antihelmintic; seed oil antirheumatic.
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