Saraca asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde
അശോകം
| Family: | LEGUMINOSAE |
|
|||
| Sub-Family: | Caesalpinioideae | ||||
| English Name: | Asoka Tree | ||||
| Synonym: | Jonesia asoca Roxb. | ||||
| Common Name: | Hemapushpam, Vanjuulam | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | February - August | ||||
| Distribution: | India and Myanmar | ||||
| Habitat: | Evergreen forests, also grown as ornamental tree in the plains | ||||
| Uses: | Sacred Indian plant, Ayurvedic, ornamental. The juice obtained from boiling the bark is a cure for some ailments of women, and a pulp of the blossoms is one of the remedies used for dysentery. | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | Saraca asocaare trees with bark surface brown or brownish-black. Leaves paripinnate, alternate; leaflets opposite, narrowly oblong, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, yellow-orange or red, in dense sessile paniculate corymbs. Calyx petalloid, cylindric; lobes 4, ovate-oblong, imbricate. Petals 0. Stamens 7 or 8, coloured; anthers versatile. Ovary half inferior, stipitate. Fruit a pod, flat, oblong. | ||||