Vateria indica L.

Common canopy to emergent trees in low and medium elevation wet evergreen forests, up to 1200 m.

Vateria species are trees, Bark smooth, brown or grayish brown, peeling off in thick, roundish flakes, bole straight, branchlets dark, glabrous or pubescent, with white resin. Leaves simple, alternate, lanceolate-ovate to oblanceolate-elliptic, base rounded, margins entire or repand, apex obtuse to acuminate, coriaceous, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath, lateral veins like feathers, curved near margins, petiole stout, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, stipules narrow, caducous, rarely persistent. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, lax racemose panicles or corymbs, branched or solitary. Flowers bisexual, large, fragrant, pink or white, pedicellate, bracts persistent, caducous or ebracteate, calyx 5 lobed, short imbricate lobes, base slightly connate, unequal, reflexed, persistent, scarcely enlarged in fruit, petals 5, white, pale yellow, elliptic-oblong, apex obtuse, spreading. Stamens 15-55, filaments sessile or very short, anthers linear oblong, connective muticous. Ovary narrow ovoid, tri-locular, 2-3 ovules per locule, style subulate, stigma minute entire or lobed. Fruit capsule, subglobose-ovoid, indehiscent, tri-valved, enclosed in scarcely accrescent calyx lobes. Seeds 1, cotyledons large, unequal, fleshy.

Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Tree

Flowering and fruiting: March-August

Vateria species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects, or cleistogamy i.e., by self or allogamy i.e., by cross pollination. Flowering/Fruiting: January—April/April—July.

Seeds may be dispersed by autochory i.e., self dispersal, anemochory i.e., wind dispersal, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Evergreen trees, up to 30 m tall, trunk girth up to 4 m, Bark smooth, grayish brown, thin, brittle, peeling off thick in round greenish and whitish flakes, with little white resin, bole straight, cylindrical, branchlets dark, stellate canescent. Leaves simple, alternate, elliptic-oblong to ovate-elliptic, about 12-25 x 3.5-10 cm across, base rounded to subcordate, margins entire, apex obtuse with to abruptly short acuminate, brightly red when young, coriaceous, green glabrous above and paler beneath, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath, lateral veins 12-20 like feathers on either side of the midrib, curved near margins, petiole stout, about 2.5-4 cm long, stipules narrow, obliquely lanceolate, apex acute, caducous, about 1-1.3 cm long. Inflorescence lateral or terminal, lax corymbose panicles, about 20 cm along. Flowers bisexual, fragrant, creamy white, pedicel about 2 cm long, calyx 5 lobed, short imbricate lobes, lanceolate, base slightly connate, unequal, reflexed, apex obtuse, canescent on both sides, persistent, scarcely enlarged in fruit, petals 5, white creamy white, elliptic-oblong, apex obtuse, spreading. Stamens 40-50, filaments sessile or very short, anthers linear oblong, yellow, glabrous, puberulous at the base, connective muticous, almost as long as anthers. Ovary narrow ovoid-oblong, tri-locular, 2-3 ovules per locule, style subulate, longer than the stamens, stigma minute entire or lobed. Fruit capsule, subglobose-ovoid, reddish white, indehiscent, tri-valved, enclosed in scarcely accrescent calyx lobes. Seeds 1, cotyledons large.

Common canopy to emergent trees in low and medium elevation wet evergreen forests, up to 1200 m.

Vateria species are susceptible to various insect pests, virus and fungi, affecting leaves, fruits and roots.

Notes: Western Ghats, Evergreen Forests

Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains

Near streams and moist places of evergreen forests or Western Ghats, altitude up to 1300 m.

Western Ghats

Critically Endangered (IUCN).

Medicinal

Wood is extensively used for making partitions, chests, boxes, cabinets etc. Resin which is known as “Malabar fallow”, “dhupa fat”, “piney resin” or “white dammar” used to manufacture candles and soaps. Bark and leaves used in Ayurvedic, Sidha, Unani and folk medicines.