Myristica malabarica

Vulnerable as per IUCN Red List (VU)

Myristica malabarica Lam., Mém. Acad. Sci. (Paris) 1788: 162 1791. (syn: Myristica dactyloides Wall.; Myristica notha Wall.; Myristica tomentosa J. Grah.);
Peninsular India (Karnataka, Kerala
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu). Endemic. as per Conspectus on Indian Gymnacranthera and Myristica;
Common name: Malabar Nutmeg • Hindi: बम्बे जायफल Bambay-jayphal, वन जायफल Van-jayphal • Kannada: Kanage, Doddajajikai • Malayalam: Kattujathi, Kattujathikka, Kottappannu, Panampalka, Pathiripoovu, Ponnampannu, Ponnampayin, Ponnampu • Marathi: रामपत्री Raampatri • Sanskrit: asana, bandhukapushpa, gostani, jatiphala • Tamil: colaivenkai, katjathika, kattu jatikkai • Telugu: adavijajikaaya, adavijajikaya, adividzajikaya

Dioecious trees, height 15 m, girth 45 cm; bark 8-10 mm thick, greenish-black, smooth, tuberculate-lenticellate, semi fibrous, blaze reddish, exudation deep red; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, estipulate; petiole 10-15 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous, lamina 7-20 x 3-10 cm, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, base acute or attenuate, apex acute, or subacute, margin entire, glabrous and glossy above and glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-14 pairs, pinnate, slender, obscure, inter costae obscure. Flowers unisexual, white; male in cymes, axillary or from the old axils below the leaves, generally cymosely branched, rarely simple. Male flowers: more numerous than in female and smaller, umbelled at the apex of branchlets; perianth urceolate, minutely puberulous outside, glabrous inside, 3-4 cleft at apex; staminal column stalked, slightly produces above the anthers, pubescent; anthers 10-15, linear; female flowers: slightly larger than male peduncle generally simple with 3 umbelled pedicels at the apex, rarely once branched and bearing 5-6 flowers; bracteole forming a narrow linear cup round the base of the perianth; ovary superior, sessile, globose, hairy, stigma 2 clefted, glabrous. Fruit a capsule 5-7.5 x 1.8-3.5, oblong, pubescent, seed one, oblong, obtuse, slightly flattened on one side, aril yellow, irregularly lobed, laciniate, extending to the apex of the seed.

Flowering and fruiting: January-September
Evergreen and swamp forests
Western Ghats (endemic)
(attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)

  

 

Myristica malabarica Lam. : 4 posts by 3 authors. Attachments (4)

As discussed, I am herewith attaching the photos of Myristica malabarica Lam.
Habit: Tree.
Location: Sirumalai Hills, Dindigul Dist., Tamil Nadu.
Alt.: ca 1300 m asl.
DoP: 08-08-2014.
During the visit, I have asked a tribal woman (Paliyar), collecting the fruits, for the uses. She told that we call this as “kalipaakku” and we collect the fruits for getting yellow-orange coloured ‘aril’ used for making yellow-orange dye. They just collect aril and sell through an agent.

The pictures are beautifully recorded, thanks … for enriching the database.. 

References:

Conspectus on Indian Gymnacranthera and Myristica D. Banik, P.P. Bora, V. Sampath Kumar and R.L. Bezbaruah- Rheedea Vol. 27(1) 1–12 2017