Ormosia travancorica Bedd.

Evergreen trees, to 25 m high, bark 10-12 mm thick, surface brown, mottled with grey, smooth; brittle; blaze yellowish-brown, streaked. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, clustered at the tips of branchlets; stipules small, lateral, pubescent; rachis 4.5-20 cm long, slender, pulvinate, pubescent, leaflets 9-13, opposite, exstipellate; petiolule 6-10 mm, slender, pubescent; lamina 3-15 x 2-4.3 cm, elliptic-oblanceolate, elliptic-oblong, or obovate, base acute, obtuse, truncate or oblique, apex acuminate, or caudate-acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, downy beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 4-9 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, purple, striped with green, in axillary and terminal racemes; bracts small; bracteoles minute; calyx tube campanulate, deeply 5 cleft, the upper teeth the shortest; corolla little exserted; petals 5, claws short, the standard orbicular, wings oblong, often more or less sagittate at base, keel petals free, somewhat incurved; stamens 10, free, alternately long and short; anthers versatile; ovary subsessile, inferior, glabrous, 1-celled, ovule 2-many; style subulate, involute; stigma oblique. Fruit a pod 5-7.5 cm long, oblong, thick, flat, red, dehiscent; seed one, rarely 2, obovate or suborbicular, biconvex, bright red.

Habit: Tree

Endemic to the Western Ghats- occasional in South Sahyadri and rare in Coorg Region of Central Sahyadri.

Kerala: Idukki, Kollam, Thrissur Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Tirunelveli