Lagerstroemia speciosa
Lagerstroemia speciosa Pers.
(LYTHRACEAE))
 
Common names   
Kannada: Chelle, Hole dasavala, Nandi
Tamil: Kadalai, Pu Maruthu.
 
Description: Deciduous trees up to 20 m tall; bark smooth, usually grey. Leaves opposite, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, up to 20 x 10 cm, acute at base, shortly acuminate at apex, glabrous, pelioles up to 1 cm long. Flowers large, showy, 5-7.5 cm across, in large, up to 30 cm long panicles, mauve or pink. Calyx pubescent, ribbed outside; teeth 6-7, spreading. Petals 6-7, suborbicular or rotund-ovate, clawed, much undulate and crumpled. Stamens many, subequal. Capsules subglobose or ellipsoid, up to 3.5 x 2.5 cm, minutely apiculate, 6-valved. Seeds many, falcately winged, pale brown.
Flowering : April – June.
Fruiting : October.
Distribution: India: Along river banks and in moist deciduous forests, up to 300 m.  Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Sri Lanka, Myanmar and New Guinea.
Uses:     Wood used for building purposes, planking, ship building, piles, bridges, water tanks, well curbs, boats, dugouts and oars, railway carriages, motor lorry bodies, floor boards, rice pounders, mortars, turnery, cooperage and mine props. Used to a limited extent for furniture. Carts, spokes of wheels, shafts, ploughs and boxes. It is also suitable for telegraph poles, leather cutting blocks,  matchboxes and splints, railway sleepers etc.
A coarse fibre is obtained from the inner bark.
One of the well-known ornamental trees and widely cultivated in gardens and as an avenue tree.
Root astringent, stimulant, febrifuge; bark antidiabetic; bark and leaf purgative; leaf diuretic and deobstuent; fruit used in aphthae of mouth; decoction of dried fruits and leaves used in diabetes; seed narcotic.
 
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