Distribution and Habitat: Evergreen forest of Western Ghats

Botany:    Erect branched magnificent, evergreen tree, stem 4 angled and shortly winged; bole straight; crown conical, when young like a flame. Bark smooth, mottled with brown and white when young, later it cracks and no white markings are seen, colour changing to rusty brown. 

• Leaves : Sessile, simple, alternate, ovate-lanceolate, entire, and glabrous.
• Flowers: Many, creamy yellow, scented and about 0.5 cm diameter, 4-merous in terminal and axillary dense cymes; bracts foliaceous; pedicels short. Calyx 4 angled or terete, lobes unequal. Corolla 5, tubular, lobes subequal.  Stamens: 1 perfect, 3 sterlie or abscent. Style short, stigma 2 lobed. Ovary  trigonous each contains 2 ovules.
• Fruits: Straw coloured, nut-like, about 1 cm long, ovoid, apiculate, enclosed in the calyx lobes, 2- winged, 1-seed.

Properties: Antioxidant 

Chemical constituents: stilbenoids and resveratrol in bark. Leaves contain phenolics.  

Uses:  Wood is white ant proof and is useful for beams and rafters; also for railway sleepers. 

Propagation: By seed.