Baccaurea courtallensis
Feb 7th, 2008 by Karthik
Tropical evergreen forests of the southern Western Ghats are the home of this endangered, evergreen tree. The tree bears tiny crimson flowers on long stalks growing on the trunk of the tree (cauliflory). These stalks are arranged in clusters on the trunk. When in bloom the whole trunk appears red and is a beautiful sight. Fruits hang in clusters from the trunk of the tree. These are about 2.5 cm in diameter and are sour to taste. Elephants, tortoises and the lion-tailed Macaques feed on the fleshy fruits. People eat these fruits too. These trees flower during the month of February and March and bears fruits are borne during May and June. In Kannada this tree is known as kolikuki. There are more than forty species of trees belonging to this genus Baccaurea occurring in India and southeast Asia. One of them has been brought into cultivation in Singapore.
Lovely description
I had just read about the flowering of this tree on the Indiatreepix egroup, so I was quite interested in reading this! Thanks. And nice pics, too…as usual!
I saw this tree yesterday at Vazhachal in Kerala.I have seen it also in Parambikulam. It is called Moottithoori in Malayalam.
Thanks Vishnupriyan. This is the flowering season for the tree. Thanks also for sharing its common Malayalam name.
it is informative to us.Is it have any medicinal properties?.share it with us.
Hi Karthik, I am a scientist working at Institute of wood science and technology, bangalore.
We had a good project on the medicinal property and anti-fungal property of this tree. Myseld and my colegue Dr.S. Mohan handled this project and we have a lot of information regarding this plant.