Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merr.

The species is leafless when in flower. Fairly common in deciduous forests up to 1219 m.

A small to medium sized tree, 10 m or more tall. Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets 5-9(-11) in number, opposite, subsessile, 50-140 x 22-50 mm, ovate to ovate-oblong, glabrous above, rusty tomentose on the under surface. Bracts ± 1.2 mm long, broad ovate. Flowers unisexual, greenish, the male in compound and female in simple racemes. Calyx lobes 4, ± 1.2 mm long, broad ovate„obtuse, ciliate. Petals 4, 2 mm long, oblong, green yellow. Male flowers: Stamens 8, as long as the petals and-inserted below the annular disk; anthers ± 1.2 mm long, basifixed; filaments glabrous. Female flowers: Ovary oblong; styles 3-4, stout. Drupe 10-12 mm long, oblong, compressed, red.

Deciduous trees, 5-10 m tall; branchlets densely covered with ferruginous stellate hairs. Petiole and rachis terete, sparsely covered with ferruginous stellate hairs; leaf blade 10-33 cm, imparipinnately compound, with (5-)7-9(-11) leaflets; leaflet petiolule 1-3 mm, with ferruginous stellate hairs; leaflet blade membranous or papery, ovate or oblong-ovate, 5.5-9 × 2.5-4 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially mixed pubescent and ferruginous stellate-haired, base oblique, subrounded, margin entire, apex long acuminate or caudate-acuminate, lateral veins 6-10 pairs, slightly impressed adaxially, prominent abaxially. Inflorescences paniculate or racemose, appearing before leaves, gathered at branch apices or on short shoots in leaf-scar axils, male inflorescence 15-30 cm, female inflorescence smaller; subtending bracts 1-2 mm with ciliate margins. Flowers small, yellow or purplish. Calyx lobes ovate to broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm, glabrous with ciliate margins. Petals ovate-oblong, ca. 2.7 × 1.5 mm, recurved at anthesis. Stamens 8, subequal to petals in male flower, reduced and sterile in female flower. Disk annular. Ovary glabrous, ovoid, 4-locular, usually only 1 ovule fertile. Drupe ovoid to slightly reniform, purplish red at maturity, 6-10 × 0.5-1 mm. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr-Jun.

Himalaya (Swat to Bhutan), Assam, Burma, Indo-China, Ceylon, Andaman Isl., China, Malaysia.

Distribution: The sub-himalayan tract to the Indus, Burma, Assam, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands.

SW Guangdong, S Guangxi, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka; cultivated elsewhere in continental SE Asia, such as in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, where it is probably naturalized].

100-1400 m

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Lowland and hill forests; 100-1800 m.

Dialium coromandelinum Houttuyn, Nat. Hist. 2(2): 39. 1774; Calesiam grande (Dennstedt) Kuntze; Haberlia grandis Dennstedt; Lannea grandis (Dennstedt) Engler; L. wodier (Roxburgh) Adelbert; Odina pinnata Rotte; O. wodier Roxburgh; Rhus odina Buchanan-Hamilton.

Lannea coromandelica, also known as the Indian ash tree, is a species of tree in the family Anacardiaceae that grows in South and Southeast Asia, ranging from Sri Lanka to Southern China. It is commonly known as Gurjon tree and is used in plywoods for its excellent termite resistance properties. It most commonly grows in exposed dry woodland environments, where the tree is smaller (up to 10 meters tall) and more crooked. In more humid environments it is a larger spreading tree that can become 20 meters tall. In Sri Lanka Lannea coromandelica often grows on rock outcrops or inselbergs.