Bark
Grey, smooth to shallowly fissured, straight cylindrical bole; resinous
Dipterocarpus indicus
IUCN Red List
Endangered
(EN)
Local name
- Gurjan (English)
- Bobbi (Kannada)
- Garjan (Hindi)
Tree type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Dipterocarpaceae
30m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Large simple, ovate-elliptic leaves, 15 -30 cm, with pleated parallel veins and conspicuous stipule scars
Flower
Large, pinkish-white, fragrant, in few-flowered racemes
Fruit / Seeds
Nut enclosed in a calyx with 2 long wing-like lobes (spins like a helicopter); seed recalcitrant
Did you know?
Fruit is a nut crowned by 2 long and 3 short persistent calyx lobes that act as wings, so it spins down like a helicopter. A rare tree of low to mid-elevation evergreen forest (about 400 - 900 m) from northern Karnataka to southern Kerala; the glabrous shoot tip and smooth calyx tube separate it from the related D. bourdillonii.
Distribution
Endemic to the Western Ghats (Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu); wet evergreen forest