Oroxylum indicum   

Oroxylum indicum (L.) Benth. ex Kurz

Family       : Bignoniaceae

Common Name : പലകപയ്യാനി(Mal)

: भूत वृक्ष (Hin)

: Broken Bones (Eng)

IUCN Status : Vulnerable (VU) ↓

Broken Bones Tree is a native tree often grown as an ornamental for its strange appearance. The long, podded fruits hang down from bear branches, looking like dangling sickles or swords in the night. The tree is also a night-bloomer and is pollinated naturally by bats. Additionally, after the large leaf stalks wither, they fall off the tree and collect near the base of the trunk, appearing to look like a pile of broken limb bones. It is a medium sized deciduous tree, growing 8-12 m tall. The bark is grayish brown with corky lenticels. The leaves are huge, 0.5-1.5 m long, 2-3 pinnate, leaflets 12 cm long and 8 cm broad. The flowers are reddish- purple outside and pale, spinkish-yellow within, numerous, in large erect racemes. The fruits are flat capsules, 0.33-1 meter long and 5-10 cm broad, sword-shaped. The seeds numerous, flat and winged all around, except at the base.

Medium sized trees, to 15 m high; bark brownish-grey, smooth. Leaves opposite, 2-3 pinnate, pinnae 5-9; imparipinnate, opposite; leaflets 3-5 in each pinnae, opposite, 7.5-15 x 4-9 cm, ovate, apex acuminate, base cordate, oblique or truncate, margin entire; lateral nerves, 4-6 pairs, pinnate, prominent; rachis 60-100 cm, stout. Flowers bisexual, in lax terminal racemes, reddish-purple outside, pinkish-yellow within, racemes to 30-50 cm long; pedicels 1-2 cm long. Calyx 2.5 cm long, campanulate, coriaceous, glabrous, limb truncate or obscurely toothed. Corolla ca10 cm long, fleshy, campanulate, 5-lobed, lobes 3 cm long. Stamens 5, perfect, the posterior one shortest, filaments inserted below the base of the tube, hairy at base; connective with a short mucro. Ovary subsessile, contracted at the base; style slender; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a capsule, 40-75 x 5-8 cm, compressed, tapering at both end; seeds thin, papery, 5-6 cm long, winged all around except at base.

Use: The root is one of the dashamoola of Ayurveda. Bark is used in tanning and dyeing.

Distribution : South India and Sri Lanka

Flowering & Fruiting : July-December