Vayana
Scientific Name :
Cinnamomum malabatrum (Burm.f.)
Synonym(s) :
Cinnamomum malabathricum Lukman.
Local/Common name(s) :
Vayana
Family :
Lauraceae
Habit :
Tree
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
December-July
Habitat :
Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
Endemic :
Yes
Status (IUCN) :
Least concern (LC)
Distribution :
Endemic to India; Kerala: throughout
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine
Description (Morphology) :
Trees, to 20 m high, reddish-brown, smooth or slightly, longitudinally cracked. Leaves simple, opposite or subopposite, elliptic-oblong, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate, base acute, margin entire, glabrous above, highly aromatic when bruised, coriaceous; 3-ribbed from at ora little above the base, the side ribs running almost to the apex, prominent with sparse crisp fine hairs, intercostae scalariform, glabrescent, slender; petiole stout, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, in axillary and pseudo terminal paniculate cymes upto 25 cm long, with densely minutely subadpressed hairy; pedicels 3-4 mm long, slender, slightly thickened upwards; perianth tube shallow, 1 mm broad. Tepals 6, fleshy, ovate, acute, with dense pilose hairs. Stamens 9 perfect, in 3 rows, anthers oblong to subovate-oblong, 4-celled; staminodes of fourth row hastate, cordate, on as long stipes, opposite the second row. Ovary half inferior, ellipsoid; style thick, cylindrical; stigma small, peltate. Fruit a berry, subtended by shallow fleshy cup; the rim with the persistent thickened, basal part of tepals rounded, pilose.