Haldina cordifolia (Roxb.) Ridsdale

Oval shaped large leaves with narrow tip and cleft at the base. Branches and leaves in opposite pairs, Flowers tiny, yellowish, with projecting stigmas resembling pin head, clustered in thick round heads.

Deciduous trees, to 30 m high, bark 1.3 cm, grey-brown, exfoliating in small patches; blaze pink-red; bole buttressed; tree crown ovoid; bark 10-12 mm thick, grey-brown, often pitted; blaze reddish; branches horizontal; branching monopodial; young shoots pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, stipulate; stipules 10-12 x 7 mm, intrapetiolar, obovate, foliaceous, cauducous; petiole 4-10 cm long, stout, pubescent; lamina 10-20 x 10-20, orbicular or ovate or boadly ovate, base cordate, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, chartaceous; nerves 5-7 from base, lateral nerves 3-5 pairs, pinnate, prominent, regular; intercostae scalariform, prominent; domatia present. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in axillary globose heads 3-4 mm long, mixed with many filiform bracteoles; hypanthium 1-2 mm long, densely hairy; calyx cupular, 1.5-2 mm long, tube short, lobes 5, 1.3-1.8 mm long; corolla 7-9 mm long, 5-riged, densely finely hairy outside, lobes 5, oblong, 1-2 mm long, densely hairy; stamens 5, exserted; filaments 0.5 mm; anthers 1-2 mm long, oblong; ovary 2-celled, inferior; ovules many on a pendulous placenta; style filiform; stigma globose. Fruit a capsule, 2-3 mm long, of 2 dehiscent cocci, turbinate, brown; seeds many with tail at one end and a bifid wing other end.

Habit: Tree

Maharashtra: Dhule,Nasik, Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Satara, Sindhudurg, Thane Karnataka: Chikmagalur, Hassan, Mysore, N. Kanara, Shimoga, S. Kanara Kerala: Idukki, Kannur, Kasargod, Kollam, Malapuram, Palakkad,Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Erode, Kanniyakumari, Namakkal, Nilgiri, Salem, Theni, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Viluppuram, Virudhunagar

West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu , Karnataka and Kerala.