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Melicope
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Melicope
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Melicope, Matchbox tree • Kachari: মিডাউমা বিফাংগ Midauma-Baphang • Kannada: ಬೆಂಕಿಪೆಟ್ಟಿ ಗಿಡ Benkipettige Gida, ಕಾಬಾಳೆ Kaabaale, ಮುಗಳಿ Mugali, ಮುಂಗಪ್ಪೆ Mungappe • Malayalam: കമ്പിളി Kampili, കനല Kanala, കാട്ടുചമ്പകം Kaattuchampakam, നാശകം Naashakam, തീപ്പെട്ടിമരം Theepettimaram • Marathi: बोक Bok • Tamil: கானலி Kanali, காட்டுசெண்பகம் Kattucampakam • Telugu: వనసంపంగి Vanasampangi • Tulu: ಸೂತಪೆಟ್ಟಿಗೆ ಮರ Soothapettige Mara Source: Names of Plants in India
Botanical name: Melicope lunu-ankenda    Family: Rutaceae (Lemon family)
Synonyms: Zanthoxylum roxburghianum, Euodia lunu-ankenda, Evodia roxburghiana

Melicope is a tree about 10 m tall. Bark is grey, corky when mature; blaze brownish. Young branchlets are quadrangular to round in cross-section, minutely velvety. Leaves are compound, trifoliate, opposite. Rachis is 3.5-11 cm long. Stalks of leaflets are 0.6-1.1 cm long, canaliculate, slightly velvety. Leaflets are 7-20 x 3-8.5 cm (usually larger in saplings), elliptic to obovate, tip long-pointed, base asymmetric or slightly flat, margin entire, papery, gland-dotted, hairless, shining above. Midrib is slightly canaliculate, secondary nerves 7-16 pairs, straight or gradually curved; tertiary nerves slender, broadly netveined. Flowers are borne in spreading panicled cymes. They are greenish white, stalkless. Seed-pods are 4-valved; 1-seeded cocci, black. Melicope is found in the evergreen forests of Western Ghats, up to 1400 m.

Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar Photographed along Chorla Ghat, Goa.

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