Bark
Dark grey to brown, generally rough or fissured on mature trees.
Hopea indica
Syn. Hopea parviflora
IUCN Red List
Least Concern
(LC)
Local name
- Iron wood of Malabar (English)
- Kiral bogi (Kannada)
- Pongu (Tamil)
Tree type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Dipterocarpaceae
35m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Simple, alternate, ovate to lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, leathery, with entire margins; approximately 8–11.5 cm long.
Flower
Small, creamy yellow, bisexual, approximately 3–4 mm across; arranged in one-sided, branched clusters near branch tips and upper leaf axils.
Fruit / Seeds
Small, ovoid nut, approximately 5–6 mm long, surrounded by a persistent calyx with two prominent wing-like lobes that aid wind dispersal.
Did you know?
Named in honor of John Hope (1725– 1786), a prominent 18th-century British botanist and the first Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. This genus is famed for containing high-density, resinous timber-yielding rainforest giants.
Distribution
SW. India