Hopea racophloea

IUCN Red List Status: Endangered (EN)

Hopea racophloea Dyer, Fl. Brit. India 1: 310 1874. ;

Tamil: Karun kongu
Malayalam: Kalalu, Kallu, Naduvali kongu, Naduvalippongu,
Nai kambagam, Veduvalikongu

Habit- Trees up to 35 m tall.

Trunk & Bark- Bark blackish, exfoliating; blaze cream.

Branches and Branchlets- Branchlets terete, glabrous.

Leaves- Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petioles 1-3 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 11.5 x 6.5 cm, ovate, apex shortly caudate-acuminate, base acute, glabrous, shining, domatia at the axils of secondary nerves beneath; midrib raised above; secondary nerves 4-5 pairs; tertiary nerves obliquely percurrent.

Inflorescence / Flower- Inflorescence in axillary or terminal panicles, 7.5-10 cm long; flowers yellowish-white with pink tinge.

Fruit and Seed- Nut, with accrescent calyx; seeds 1.

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests between 300 and 700 m.

Endemic to the Western Ghats with disjunct distribution – recorded from Agasthyamalai Hills in South Sahyadri and Nilambur Ghats and Brahmagiris in Central Sahyadri.

(Attributions- B. R. Ramesh, N. Ayyappan, Pierre Grard, Juliana Prosperi, S. Aravajy, Jean Pierre Pascal, The Biotik Team, French Institute of Pondicherry

from India Biodiversity Portal)

This tree is known from scarce and scattered collections from the southern end of the Western Ghats

Native: India (Karnataka, Kerala)

Evergreen forest.

Citation:

Ashton, P. 1998. Hopea racophloea. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 23 November 2014.