Millingtonia hortensis L. fil.

The ‘Indian Cork Tree’ is occasionally cultivated as a roadside tree or along avenues. The flowers are fragrant and fully open at night. Does not set fruit here.

Young shoots pubescent. Leaves 40-50 cm long; leaflets (3-)5-7 (-9-), ovate to elliptic-ovate, 23-40 x 12-35 mm, dentate to subentire, acuminate, cuneate to ± truncate, nerves prominent on undersurface. Panicles many-flowerd. Calyx cupular, c.2 mm long, truncate, lobes indistinct, persistent. Corolla tube cylindrical. 54-56 mm long, slender, lobes unequal, elliptic-ovate to oval, 6.5-12.5 x 5.6 6.5 mm. Stamens attached near mouth of corolla; filaments of longer stamens 10.5 mm; fertile anther cell oblong, 4 mm long, abortive cell linear, curved, c.1.2 mm long, staminodes filiform. Ovary linear-oblong, c. 4.5 mm long. Style filiform, exserted; stigma bilobed, lobes subovate, c. 1.2 mm long. Capsule not seen.

Trees 8-25 m tall. Leaves 40-100 cm; petiolule ca. 1 cm; leaflets elliptic, ovate, or ovate-oblong, (2-)5-7 X 1.5-4 cm, glabrous, base rounded, oblique, margin entire, apex acuminate; lateral veins 4 or 5 on each side of midrib. Inflorescences cymose-paniculate, ca. 25 cm in diam.; peduncle and pedicels pale yellow pubescent; bracts and bractlets deciduous. Pedicel slender, ca. 1 cm. Calyx small, cupular, 2-4 X 2-4 mm, sinuo- late lobed; lobes slightly reflexed. Corolla white, tube 3-7 cm, 2-3 mm in diam. at base; lobes globose in bud, ovate-lanceolate at anthesis, 1-2 cm, densely pubescent along margin adaxially. Ovary glabrous; ovules numerous, 4-rowed. Capsule linear, 30-35 X 1-1.5 cm, compressed. Seeds discoid-oblong, compressed, including wing 1.5-3.5 X 1-1.5 cm, surrounded by membranous and transparent wings. Fl. Sep-Dec. 2n = 30.

Distribution: Native of Burma & Malaya. Widely cultivated in the tropics and sub-tropics.

S Yunnan [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; commonly cultivated throughout India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, occasionally naturalized].

Fl.Per.: Nov. Feb.

Low altitude slopes; 500-1200 m.