Madhuca bourdillonii

Endangered as per Wikipedia;

Madhuca bourdillonii (Gamble) H.J.Lam, Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg III, 8: 463 1927. (syn: Bassia bourdillonii Gamble);

India (Karnataka, Kerala) as per WCSP;

Trees, to 30 m high, bark 6-8 mm thick, surface greyish-brown, shallowly fissured; blaze pink-red; latex milky white; younger branches fulvous tomentose. Leaves simple, alternate, crowded at the tip of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 15-45 mm, slender, pubescent, swollen at base; lamina 15-30 x 6.5-7.5, linear-elliptic, oblanceolate or spathulate, base cuneate, apex acute or shortly obtusely acuminate, margin entire, fulvous tomentose when young, becoming glabrous above and glabrescent below, except the midrib, coriaceous; lateral nerves 20-25 pairs, parallel, nearly right angles to midrib, slender; intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, yellowish-white, 1.7 cm long, in axillary fascicles, appear along with new flush; peduncles 2.5-3.8 cm; pedicels 1.5-2 cm long, densely brown tomentose; calyx lobes 4, ovate, outer 0.7 x 0.6 cm, brown tomentose; corolla campanulate, tube broad, 12-lobed; stamens 24, in two whorls; filaments short; anthers 3.5 mm long, glabrous, ovate, connective appendage 1 mm long; ovary ovoid, glabrous, 11 or 12-celled, superior; style subulate, elongate. Fruit a berry, green, smooth, ovoid, 3.7 cm across; seeds 4-5, ellipsoid.

Flowering and fruiting: November-July
Semi-evergreen forests
Southern Western Ghats
(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi as per India Biodiversity Portal)

 

Madhuca bourdillonii images : 5 posts by 2 authors. 4 images- around 4 mb each.

Please find attached image of Madhuca bourdillonii






References:

Discovery of Two Critically Endangered Tree Species and Issues Related to Relic Forests of the Western Ghats M D SUBASH Chandran, Divakar K. Mesta, Ramachandra Rao G, Sameer Ali- February 2007 The Open Conservation Biology Journal 2(1) (Abstract- Madhuca bourdillonii (Gamble) Lam. and Syzygium travancoricum Gamble, considered almost extinct but later found to be occurring in small numbers in their home range in Western Ghats, south of Palghat Gap, have been now dis- covered in some of the relic primeval evergreen forests of Uttara Kannada, over 700 km north. These relic forests also shelter scores of other rare endemic elements of flora and fauna. These findings highlight the need for making intensive efforts for locating more of such relic forests and documenting their biota. Also, biologists need to restrain from the ten- dencies of considering any novel occurrences of species away from their home ranges as new species, before ruling out the possibilities that these could be the relics of ancient populations or their morphological variants. Presence of relic for- ests does reveal the legacy of erstwhile contiguous forests, which is now fragmented due to rapid land use changes. Con- servationists handling biodiversity hotspots should be able to distinguish between relics of primeval forests and advanced stages of secondary successions. Lack of such understanding will result in imperceptible extinctions of many endemic species)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *