| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Hernandiaceae |
| Synonym | Gyrocarpus americanus sensu Gamble |
| Local Name | Thanukku |
| Habit | Medium sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bark silvery grey or greyish-yellow, smooth; blaze dull-yellow; leafscars prominent, shining; tender parts pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, crowded at apex, estipulate; petiole 10-15 cm long, slender, puberulus; lamina 10-18 x 9-15 cm, broadly ovate, base truncate or subcordate, apex acute or acuminate; margin entire or some times 3-lobed, glabrous above and appressed pubescent below, chartaceous;lateral nerves 3-5 pairs, forked, slender, faint. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow, tomentose; male flowers 5 mm across; tepals 4-7, to 1.5 mm, unequal, ovate, concave, pubescent; stamens 4-7; filaments 2 mm; staminodes glandular, obtuse, flat; female flowers : 3 mm across; tepals 4-7, basally adnate to the ovary, pubescent; ovary inferior, 1-celled, ovule 1; stigma inferior. Fruit a drupe, 1 x 0.8 cm, ovoid, pubescent, wings 2, oblanceolate; seed one. |