Systematic Classification:
Division : Angiospermae
Class : Dicotyledons
Family : Dipterocarpaceae
Genus : VaticaSpecies : chinensisCommon Name:
Adakkapayin
General Information:
Evergreen trees, about 20-30 m tall, trunk about 2 m girth, with dense irregular crown, and spreading sympodial branches. Bark smooth, pale grayish, patched with dark colours, bole straight, buttressed, with creamy white or yellow resin, young buds and shoots outside of perianth exposed. Leaves simple, alternate, very variable in shape and size, lanceolate to narrow ovate, about 8-25 x 2.8-11 cm across, base rounded or retuse, widest near the base, gradually tapering towards the apex, margins entire, apex acute, coriaceous, green glabrous above, paler glabrous beneath, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath and somewhat oblique, pinnately veined, lateral veins 10-14, curved near margins, teritiary veins reticulate, petiole stout, glabrous, about 2-4.5 cm long, stipules fugaceous, caducous. Inflorescence axillary, spreading cymose panicles, up to 30 cm long. Flowers bisexual, large, fragrant, pale yellow or white, pedicel 5 ribbed, and ribs alternating with sepals, calyx 5 lobed, very short lobed, lanceolate to ovoid-deltoid, base adnate to the ovary, acute lobes imbricate becoming valvate, apex acute, about 2 cm long, petals 5, white or creamy, narrow elliptic-oblong, about 10 cm long. Stamens 15, in 3 series, of which 5 pairs are placed opposite to sepals, with large shallow pits, filaments of inner 5 long, and 10 outer stamens short, anthers glabrous, cells very unequal, appendages of the connective obtuse. Ovary ovoid, tri-locular, in obconical receptacle, usually pubescent, and pitted, style shorter or almost as long as ovary, stigma minute tri-lobed with 3 obscure loculicidal furrows, pubescent. Fruit capsule, globose-ovoid, tri-valved, variable in size, free or slightly embedded in variable calyx tube, ovate, apex acute, with persistent style. Seeds 1-2, cotyledons thick, fleshy, base bifid, plano-convex.
Economic Importance:
- Wood is durable in water, resin used in varnishes.