Melicope lunu-ankenda (Gaertn.) T.G. Hartley
കമ്പിളി


Family: RUTACEAE
Sub-Family: Not available
English Name: Not available
Synonym: Euodia lunu-ankenda (Gaertn.)Merr.var.tirunelvelica
Common Name: Kanala, Kaneli, Nasakam
Flowering & Fruiting Period: May-July
Distribution: Indo-Malesia
Habitat: Evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests
Uses: The leaves are eaten as a condiment and have been used to flavour food. The roots are used to treat colds and rheumatism. The leaves and flowers are used in the treatment of menstrual disorders and fever. The heartwood is yellow or light orange; it is not clearly demarcated from the lighter coloured sapwood. The texture is moderately fine and even; the grain is straight or shallowly interlocked. The wood is soft to moderately hard and fairly light in weight. It is suitable for interior finishing, paneling, mouldings, veneer and plywood manufacture, general utility furniture, packing cases and boxes, carving and handicraft items. The wood is weak but it is used in construction.
Key Characteristics: Deciduous trees, to 18 m high, bark yellowish-grey, scurfy-muricate. Leaves trifoliate, opposite; leaflets elliptic, elliptic-oblanceolate, margin entire. Flowers unisexual, white or greenish-yellow, in axillary paniculate cymes; male flowers: sepals 4; petals 4, white, glabrous; stamens 4, slightly longer than petals; filaments subulate; anthers oblong; pistillode of 4 rudimentary carpels; female flowers: sepals and petals as in male flowers; staminodes 4, inserted at the base of the disc; ovary superior, 4-lobed; style short; stigma capitate. Fruit a capsule, ovoid, brown; seeds oblong, black.