| Palaquium ravii | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Sapotaceae |
| Genus: | Palaquium |
| Species: | P. ravii |
| Binomial name | |
| Palaquium ravii | |
Palaquium ravii is a species of tree in the family Sapotaceae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats mountains and native to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India. [2]
This species occurs as evergreen trees that grow up to 20 to 37 m tall. The trees have straight, smooth, grey bark or greyish-red boles, with reddish blaze and profuse white latex. [3] Mature trees appear like columns as the branches spread out at a significant height. The young branchlets are cylindrical, with appressed small hairs, but are hairless when mature. The leaves are simple and alternate, spirally arranged and distinctly clustered towards the end of the twigs. The leaves are thick (coriaceous), hariless (glabrous), with an entire margin and turn brown when dry. They have small stipules that drop off, leaving a visible scar. The leaf petiole is about 1.5- 2.5 cm long and with small hairs when young, but is glabrous in mature leaves. The leaf blade is about 8-17 long and 3.5-6.2 cm wide, distinctly obovate to oblanceolate in shape. The leaf has an attenuate base and an apex that is obtuse or rounded or abruptly acuminate with a blunt tip. In venation, the leaves have 5-8 pairs of secondary nerves and broadly reticulate tertiary veins. The flowers are creamy white that are solitary in older branches or held in axillary clusters of 2-8 flowers each with a pedicel up to 1 cm long. The fruit is a berry, with a spherical or obovoid shape, about 2 cm in length. The calyx lobes are persistent on the fruit, which has a grainy, rough light brown surface. The fruits have 1, or rarely 2, seeds, that are shiny, brown. [3] [4]
The species was described by N. Sasidharan and W. Vink and named after N. Ravi, Professor of Botany, in Sree Narayana College, Quilon. [2] It differs from 11 other species in the same genus found in India and Sri Lanka is some key characters. It lacks an acumen at the leaf tip unlike Palaquium bourdillonii , P. canaliculatum , P. ellipticum , P. laevifolium , P. pauciflorum, P. petiolare , P. polyanthum , and P. thwaitesii. It has smaller leaves and fewer lateral nerves than P. grande and P. obovatum and a much shorter fruit stalk than in P. rubiginosum . The obovoid berry and leaf shape is somewhat similar to P. obovatum , but the latter lacks the arcuate connections between the secondary nerves and has its tertiary nerves transverse. [2]
The species is called Choppala, Pachendi, Pali in Malayalam. [3] The Kadar name for it is Chora Pali. [4]
The species is endemic to the Anamalai Hills of the southern Western Ghats mountain ranges in India. [3] It is listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . [1]
The species occurs in medium-elevation tropical wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. It was reported to occur between 700 and 800 m elevation, [3] but recent surveys have recorded the species between 670 and 100 m above sea level in the Anamalai Hills. [4] The trees flower between April and June and fruits are seen between May and September. [4]
Palaquium is a genus of about 120 species of trees in the family Sapotaceae. Their range is from India across Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and Australasia, to the western Pacific Islands.
Gluta travancorica is a species of plant in the family Anacardiaceae. It is endemic to the southern Western Ghats in India.
Orophea thomsonii or Thomson's Turret Flower is a species of shrub or small tree in the Annonaceae family. It is native to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India and endemic to the Western Ghats mountain range.
Phyllanthus anamalayanus is a species of plant in the family Phyllanthaceae. It is endemic to the Anamalai Hills in Coimbatore district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The species is a shrub or small tree occurring in the understorey of mid-elevation tropical wet evergreen forests in the Anamalai Hills, and is endemic to the Western Ghats. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Syzygium densiflorum is a species of evergreen tree in the family Myrtaceae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats mountains, India. The species is categorised as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List.
Daphnandra johnsonii, also known as the Illawarra socketwood, is a rare rainforest tree in the Illawarra district of eastern Australia.
Omphalocarpum elatum Miers is a tall, tropical African tree belonging to the family Sapotaceae, remarkable for the large fruits growing directly from the trunk, and in many ways resembling the Lecythidaceae genus Napoleonaea. It is found in Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola in the south. The fruits are favoured by elephants, the only animals able to break through the hard shell. They do this by skewering the fruit with a tusk while using their trunk to brace it against the ground. Having passed through the elephant's digestive tract, seeds germinate more readily. Although not yet endangered, the tree's life cycle is tied to that of forest elephants, and may become threatened in regions where elephant populations are under pressure.
Garcinia pushpangadaniana is a tree species in the family Clusiaceae. It was described in 2013 from a population found in the southern part of the Western Ghats in India. The specific epithet of this species honors Dr. P. Pushpangadan, former Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden & Research Institute.
Palaquium obovatum is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet obovatum means "egg-shaped", referring to the leaves.
Mallotus tetracoccus, also known as the rusty kamala, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is a tree species found in parts of south Asia, typically occurring in the edges of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.
Dipterocarpus bourdillonii is a species of large tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae endemic to the Western Ghats principally in the state of Kerala in India. It is a Critically Endangered species according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is a characteristic tree of the low-elevation tropical wet evergreen rainforests in the Western Ghats.
Cullenia exarillata is a flowering plant evergreen tree species in the family Malvaceae endemic to the rainforests of the southern Western Ghats in India. It is one of the characteristic trees of the mid-elevation tropical wet evergreen rainforests and an important food plant for the endemic primate, the lion-tailed macaque.
Bhesa indica is a flowering plant tree species in the Centroplacaceae family. It is distributed along the tropical wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India. It is considered synonymous with Bhesa paniculata by some authors.
Palaquium galactoxylum, commonly known as Cairns pencil cedar, Daintree maple or red silkwood, is a species of plants in the star apple family Sapotaceae which is endemic to rainforests of New Guinea and northern Australia. It can produce spectacularly large buttress roots.
Palaquium ellipticum is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. This is a common canopy tree in low and medium elevation evergreen forests up to 1500 m. This species is endemic to the Western Ghats.
Myristica beddomei is a species of tree in the family Myristicaceae. It is endemic to the Western Ghats, India, where it is frequent in the mid-elevation wet evergreen forests and an important food tree of hornbills. The species has been earlier misidentified in regional floras and herbarium specimens as Myristica dactyloides Gaertn., the latter occurring only in Sri Lanka.
Cryptocarya anamalayana is a rare rainforest tree endemic to the southern Western Ghats, India. The specific epithet of the name refers to the Anamalai Hills, a major area of its distribution. The species considered endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Diospyros paniculata, or the panicle-flowered ebony, is a species of tree in the ebony family. Endemic to the Western Ghats area of India and parts of Bangladesh, the species is currently listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List.
Drypetes wightii is an evergreen tree species endemic to the Western Ghats, India. The species is considered Vulnerable under the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species.
Dysoxylum malabaricum, or white cedar, is a tree species endemic to the Western Ghats, India. The species is considered Endangered under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
