Rasi Vanam

Botanical Name: Wrightia tinctoria R.Br.
Tamil Name: Vetpaalai
Sanskrit Name: Svetakutaja
English Name: Pala Indigo Tree

M. Subramanian
Project Officer
C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre
Chennai

Habitat

Deciduous trees; up to 15 m; bark 8-10 mm thick, grey, smooth; outer layer thin, inner layer thick, brittle, creamy; blaze greenish-yellow; latex milky white. Leaves simple, opposite, distichous, estipulate; petiole 2-5 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 3.5-11 x 2-4 cm, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-ovate; base acute; apex acuminate or caudate acuminate; margin entire, glabrous, glaucous beneath, chartaceous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, slender, arched, pinnate, prominent, inter-costae reticulate. Flower bisexual, white, scented, in terminal cymes appearing along with new leaves; pedicel 1.5 mm long, bracts 2, minute; calyx lobes 5, with membranous margin, 2 mm, ovate, obtuse, ciliate, glandular inside; corolla salver shaped, lobes 5, broad lobes 12 x 5 mm, oblong, obtuse, throat with 1-2 series of erect, fimbriate corona scales, tube 1.5-2mm; stamens 5, inserted on the mouth of the tube, anthers sagitate, spurred at base, conniving and adhering to the stigma; disc absent; carpels 2, free, many ovuled, style filiform, stigma ovoid, usually with a toothed basal ring. Fruit of 2 follicular mericarps, 15-45 cm long, slender, smooth, green, cylindric, cohering at the tip; seed 16 mm long, black, commate at one end. (India Biodiversity Portal.com).

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