Alstonia Scholaris

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Unranked: Angiosperms
Unranked: Eudicots
Unranked: Asterids
Order : Gentianales
Family : Apocynaceae
Genus: Alstonia
Species: A.scholaris

Common names
English : Scholar Tree, Devil Tree, Blackboard Tree.
Hindi : Saptaparni, Chitvan
Kannada :AeleleHaale, Bantale, Doddapala
Marathi : Satvin

Discription

1. Habit and Habitat :Tall evergreen tree uo to 18m with bitter milky juice, glabrous except inflorescence.
2. Stem : bark grey rough and yellowish from inside, branches whorled, young branches lenticellate, when he bark is injured a milky juice comes out.
3. Distribution : Widely distributed in tropical and sub tropical regions, indigenous to the West Indies. It is distributed in Bengal, Burma and Southern regions of India. Native to tropical regions of America. Widely cultivated in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
4. Morphology :
   Leaf: 4-7 in whorls, coriaceous, oblong- lanceolate, obtuse or blunty acuminate, dark green above, pale and covered with whitish bloom beneath, base tapering, main nerves numerous, nearly horizontal, parallel, initing in an intramarginal nerve. Infloroscence:Capitate cymes.
   Flower: Small, fragnant, greenish white,inumbellate,branched many-flowered, pubescent capitate cyme, peduncles 2.5-5cm long, pedicels very short, bracts oblong, pubescent. Carpels pubescent. Fruit : Follicles 30-60cm long and 0.3cm in diameter, cylindric, pendulous in clsuters, become completely averted after dehiscence.
   Seeds: Smooth and blackish in colour, 0.6 cm long, linear-oblong, flat, round with fringe of hairs at both ends.
5. Propagation: by seeds
6. Importance:
   Often planted as a ornamental in gardens, bark used for treating asthama and heart ailments, fever and diarrhoea, used to make writing pens. Fruits used as medicine against intestinal werms. The wood has been recommended for the manufacture of pencils.
7. Location: two wheeler parking lot.
   Reference
   Flowere of India
   Wikipedia
   vikaspedia