Teak (തേക്ക്)
Scientific Name: | Tectona grandis L.f. | |
Synonyms: | Jatus grandis (L.f.) Kuntze , Tectona theca Lour. | |
Systematic Position | ||
Class: | Dicotylodonae | |
Sub Class: | Gamopetalae | |
Series: | Bicarpellatae | |
Order: | Lamiales | |
Family: | Verbenaceae | |
Common Names | ||
English: | Teak, Indian Oak | |
Malayalam: | തേക്ക് | |
Tamil: | Thaekku | |
Hindi: | Sagun |
Description: Deciduous trees, to 30 m high, bark 10-20 mm thick, yellowish-brown, rough, shallowly vertically fissured, fibrous; blaze pale yellowish concentrically lamellate; bole often fluted at base; branchlets 5-10 mm thick, 4-angled, puberulous. Leaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 10-50 mm long, stout, tomentose; lamina 30-60 x 15-30 cm, ovate, obovate, base attenuate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, wavy, glabrous above and pubescent below with minute red glands, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, raised beneath, puberulent beneath; intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers bisexual, white, 7 mm across, in terminal cymose panicles, 10-30 cm across, puberulus; calyx 5 mm long, campanulate, lobes 5-6, subequal, ovate, tomentose; corolla 6 mm long, lobes 5-6, oblong, spreading; stamens 5-6, equal, erect, inserted at the throat, exserted; filaments 3 mm; anthers oblong; ovary globose, superior, densely hairy, 4-celled, 1 ovule in each cell; style slender, 4 mm; stigma linearly bifid. Fruit a drupe, 1.5-2 cm across, globose, brown, densely floccose hairy, covered by the inflated calyx, epicarp spongy, endocarp stony; seeds 1-4, oblong. Flowering and fruiting: May-January
Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, also raised in plantations
Distribution: Native to Tropical Asia and Malesia.
Uses: Medicinal : Bark,Seed ; Good fuelwood ; Pest management: Leaf ; Wind break, Live fence, Nectar source, Culturally significant, Timber, Tanning and dyeing