Bael tree
Scientific Name :
Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa
Synonym(s) :
Crateva marmelos L.
Local/Common name(s) :
Koovalam, Bael tree
Family :
Rutaceae
Habit :
Tree
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
March-October
Habitat :
Grown in temple premises and homesteads
Endemic :
No
Status (IUCN) :
Near Threatened (NT)
Distribution :
India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos; Kerala: throughout
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine, Dye, Food, Oil, Gum, Fodder
Description (Morphology) :
Trees to 12 m tall, deciduous; branchlets cylindric, glabrous; Leaves alternate-3-foliolate, sometimes 5 foliolate, dimorphic, leaflets subsessile, ovate-elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, tapering at apex, oblique at base, shallowly crenate-serrate at margin, membranous, pellucid-punctate, pale green; Inflorescences axillary and terminal, racemose or corymbose, few-flowered; peduncles densely puberulent. Flowers bisexual, greenish white or yellow, fragrant. Calyx cupular, finely puberulent, caducous. Petals 5, ovate-oblong, subequal, spreading, glabrous, fleshy and white. Stamens numerous in 2 or 3 series, free or basally subconnate, unequal; filaments subulate; anthers linear-oblong. Disc glabrous, greenish. Ovary ovoid; ovules many, 2-seriate; style short; stigma oblong, longitudinally grooved. Berries ovoid, woody, yellowish, many seeded; seeds oblong and flat.