Known plants of Tamil Nadu

Botanical Name :  Bougainvillea glabra  Choisy Family : Nyctaginaceae Common Name : Bougainvillea, Lesser Bougainvillea, Paper Flower Description : It is the lesser bougainvillea or paperflower, is the most common species of bougainvillea used for bonsai. The epithet 'glabra' comes from Latin and means "bald". spiny, evergreen plant, varying in habit from a shrub to a tree, or becoming a climbing shrub producing stems up to 7 metres. Bougainvillea is often grown as an annual or container plant. The actual flower is small and insignificant, it is the colorful bracts, or modified leaves, which can be seen in all shades of pink, purple, and red that attract attention. Bougainvillea is best suited to a hot, dry climate and should be watered deeply but allowed to dry out between watering. Once established, they are drought resistant.   It is a woody climber with curved thorns that sprawls and needs to be tied or have a structure such as a fence, wall, or pergola for

Botanical name: Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn., Family: Bombacaceae Common name : Kapok Tree English name: Kapok tree, with cotton tree, silk cotton tree Description: It is a deciduous tree with a pagoda-shaped, thin crown. It can become a very large tree, capable of reaching a height of 70 metres, buttressed trunk with a high canopy that can grow up to 70 metres (230 feet) in height. Three versions of the tree are found on our planet: that grown in tropical rainforests is a massive tree with spiny thorns protruding from its trunk. A second form grows in West African savannas, and it is a smaller tree with a smooth trunk. The third form is deliberately cultivated, with low branches and a smooth trunk. Its fruits are harvested for their kapok fibers, used to stuff mattresses, pillows and life preservers: it is the tree that envelops some of the buildings of Cambodia's Angkor Wat. The version cherished by the Maya is the rainforest version, which colonizes riverbanks and grows

Botanical Name: Areca catechu L. Family: Arecaceae Common Name: Betel Palm, Pakku English Name: Areca palm, pinang Description: It is an evergreen single-stemmed palm tree that can grow up to 30 metres tall but is more commonly around 15 metres. Arecanut is an erect, unbranched palm reaching heights of 12-30 m, depending upon the environmental conditions. The stem, marked with scars of fallen leaves in a regular annulated form, becomes visible only when the palm is about 3 years old. Girth depends on genetic variation and soil conditions. Root system adventitious, typical of monocots. The adult palm has 7-12 open leaves, each with a sheath, a rachis and leaflets. The leaf stalk extends as the midrib until the end of the leaf and ends as leaflets. Male flowers very numerous, sessile, without bracts; calyx 1-leaved, small, 3-cornered, 3-parted; petals 3, oblong, rigid striated; stamens 6, anthers sagittate. Female flowers solitary or 2 or 3 at or near the base of each ramificatio

  Botanical Name:  Saraca asoca (Roxb.) W.J.de Wilde Family: Fabaceae Common Name: Ashokam, Vanjuulam English Name: Ashok tree Description : A middle sized handsome tree. Leaves paripinnate, glabrous, leaflets 4-5 pairs, 10- 20 cm long, margin slightly wavy. Flowers are fragrant, orange scarlet in terminal or axillary racemes. Pods are 5 - 10 inch compresed, tapering at the both ends. Very beautiful tree when flowers. The purplish pink new leaves appear at the intervals. Leaves  paripinnate, alternate; leaflets 6-12, opposite, 7-28.5x 2-8.5 cm, narrowly  oblong, oblong-ovate or ovate- lanceolate, round, cuneate or acute, apex acute or acuminate, base obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; stipules 7-20 mm long, intra petiolar, scarious, ovate, connate;rachis 4-25 cm long, slender,, pulvinate, glabrous; petiolule 2-10 mm long, stout, glabrous; lateral nerves 10-15 pairs, pinnate, arched towards the margin, slender, faint, intercostae reticulate,faint. Flowers bisexual, yell

  Botanical Name: Cocos nucifera L. Family: Arecaceae Common Name : Coconut English Name: Coconut Distribution: C. nucifera palms are unbranched, monoecious trees with smooth, columnar, light grey-brown trunk, usually 9-18 m height and sometimes taller (up to 30 m); dwarf selections also exist. Leaves pinnate, feather shaped, 4-7 m long and 1-1.5 m wide at the broadest part. Leaf stalks 1-2 cm in length and thorn-less. Inflorescence consists of female and male axillary flowers. Flowers are small and light yellow, in clusters that emerge from canoe-shaped sheaths among the leaves. Male flowers are small and more numerous. Female flowers 1 or fewer than male flowers; larger, spherical structures, about 25 mm in diameter. Fruit a drupe, roughly ovoid, up to 30 cm long and 20 cm wide, composed of a thick, fibrous husk surrounding a somewhat spherical nut with a hard, brittle, hairy shell. The fruit consists of (from the outside to in) a thin hard skin (exocarp), a thicker layer of f

Botanical Name: Ixora coccinea L. Family: Rubiaceae Common Name:   Flame-of-the-woods English Name : Flame of the woods, jungle flame, needle flower, Description : This woody, evergreen, flowering shrub native of southeast Asia has become popular in Florida, but does not tolerate temperatures below 50 degrees and may die back in other zones.   It can regenerate in the spring or be grown in containers and brought indoors in the winter.   However, it may become susceptible to indoor problems such as scale, thrips and mealybugs. It grows in a bushy, rounded form with 4" long, glossy, dark evergreen leaves and summer blooms of 4 petaled red flowers in 5" wide cymes. The fruits are round and dark purple to black.   Ixora prefers full sun in moist, well-drained, acidic but organically rich soils.   It can tolerate small amounts of shade in the afternoon hea Flowering & Fruiting : Throughout the year Distribution : E. Asia - India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam IU