Saraca asoca
Saraca asoca, inflorescence: young flowers ( yellow-orange ) and old flowers ( red)
Saraca asoca is a flowering plant in the family of the legume family ( Fabaceae ). The natural habitat is the Indian subcontinent: Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and western Myanmar. The Sanskrit name of ashoka means " no worries ", derived from this, but also a different kind Ashokabaum is sometimes called.
Description
Appearance and leaf
Saraca asoca grows as evergreen, upright small tree, reaching heights of growth of a maximum of 8 to 12 meters. He branches out early; its branches form a weitausladende crown.
The stalked leaves are 30 cm long, and pinnate pairs with only four to six pairs of feathery leaves. The bare, leathery leaflets are of a length of 10 to 20 cm relatively large and oblong or lanceolate. The small, intrapetiolaren stipules fall off early.
Inflorescence, flower, fruit and seeds
The flowering period extends into Pakistan from January to May in a corymb | schirmrispigen inflorescence many flowers are tight. They are small, early wilting, colored bracts present. The cover sheets are colored.
The flowers give off an intense fragrance aroma. The hermaphrodite flowers are weakly zygomorphic and cruciform. On the 1.2 to 1.7 cm high tubed flowers cup ( hypanthium ) sit the sepals. The four kronblattartigen, only nearly equal sepals are oval. The color of the sepals varies during the anthesis of first yellow to yellow- orange to scarlet in the end. There are no petals present. There are one or two groups each having four stamens present; protrudes above the sepals. The stamens are long and the anthers are almost the same. The single -stalked carpel contains many ovules. The thin stylus is bent into a ring and almost as long as the stamens
The 15 to 25 cm long legume opens at maturity and contains four to eight seeds.
Dissemination
The natural range of Saraca asoca ranges from the Malay Peninsula, Myanmar, about Assam, Bangladesh and eastern Pakistan and the southern India to Sri Lanka.
Taxonomy
The first publication was in 1795 under the name ( basionym ) Jonesia asoca Roxb. by William Roxburgh in Asiatic Researches, 4 S. 355 was the new combination to Saraca asoca 1968 by Willem Jacobus January Oswald de Wilde in Blumea, Vol 15, p 393 Another synonym for Saraca asoca ( Roxb. ) De Wilde is Saraca indica L.
Use
Saraca asoca is used as an ornamental plant.
In the northern part of Sri Lanka, the wood is used for house construction. The bark is used to treat uterine infections and as an astringent in cases of internal hemorrhoids.
Trivial names
Other common names: In English: asoka -tree.
Other Southeast Asian names are: Thawgabo, Thawka ( Burmese ), Vand ichitrah, Vanjulam ( hindi ), Ashok ( Assamese ), Oshok ( Bengali ), Ashoka ( oriya ), Asogam ( Tamil ), Asokam ( malayalam ), Asokamu, Vanjulamu ( telugu ), Sokanam (Thai, โสก น้ำ ) Diyaratmal, Diyeratembela ( Sinhala ), Nikabilissa ( Divehi ), Achenge, Akshth, Ashanke, Kenkalimara ( kannada ), Gapis, Tengalan ( Malaysian ).
Swell
- Syed Ali Irtifaq: Caesalpiniaceae in the Flora of Pakistan, Volume 54, Department of Botany, University of Karachi: Saraca asoca.