Monoon coffeoides

Monoon coffeoides (Thwaites ex Hook f. & Thomson) B. Xue & R. M. K. Saunders, Taxon 61: 1030. 2012 (syn: Guatteria coffeoides Thwaites ex Hook. f. & Thomson (basionym); Polyalthia coffeoides (Thwaites ex Hook. f. & Thomson) Bedd.) as per A conspectus of Indo-Burmese
Annonaceae by
I. M. Turner (2015);
Images by Navendu Page & Mohina Macker (Inserted by Bhagyashri Ranade) 

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Vernacular names : Tamil: Nakulai,
Nedunarai. Malayalam: Nedunar, Villa.
 

Trees 15-25 m tall; bole straight with knots and tubercles; bark smooth, dark green, often mottled with greyish-white, young shoots slender, minutely puberulous; blaze yellow; branches horizontal. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, estipulate, young leaves red at first; petiole 10-13 mm, stout, glabrous, grooved above; lamina 10-27 x 3.5-8.5 cm oblong, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, base obtuse, cuneate-round or acute; apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, slightly undulate; coriaceous, glabrous and shiny above, lateral nerves 8-14 pairs, prominent beneath, pinnate, ascending; intercostae scalariform, obscure. Flowers bisexual greenish-yellow, solitary, extra axillary or some times fascicled on woody tubercles on trunk; pedicels 1-4 cm long, slender, pubescent; sepals 3, 2 x 5 mm, suborbicular, tomentose; petals 6 (3+3), 3-5 x 0.5-1 cm, greenish-yellow, flat and strap shaped, subequal; torus convex, stamens numerous, 1 mm long, cuneate, connectives subglobose at top, concealing the anthers, anther cells remote; carpels numerous, 3-4 mm long, densely pubescent, oblong, stalked, stigma capitate; ovule one, basal and ascending. Fruit aggregate of berries, 2.5 x 1.5 cm, ovoid, apiculate, dark purple; seed one, broadly ovoid, grooved, smooth and shiny. 

Flowering and fruiting: May-August
Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
South India and Sri Lanka

 
 
polyalthia cofffeoides:  a sapling of polyalthia coffeoides given to me by my friends neil soares and amog. It was planted two months ago and is beginning to show new foliage

-The saplings were grown from seeds collected at Yellapur, Karnataka.

 
polyalthia coffeoidees:  had some difficulty finding literature on polyalthia coffeoides on the net. But it exists and I was able to figure out that it is a glossy leaved evergreen tree of the  jungles. It was also intriguing enough to plant and see what happens as it grows. 


Great Find … New to me..

 
 
 

References: