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The Mast Tree is indigenous to Sri Lanka, elsewhere it is cultivated. In Pakistan, it is commonly cultivated in Sind as an avenue tree or in gardens, also occasionally planted in Punjab. It rarely flowers in Karachi. The cultivar pendula (weeping variety) is columnar with short drooping branches, sometimes the lower branches touching the ground. The tree is supposed to have several medicinal qualities. The bark is febrifuge and the inner bark yields a useful fibre. The berries are relished by bats, reportedly eaten by men also during scarcity. The tall, straight trunks were used as mast in the olden days of sailing ships.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of Pakistan Vol. 0: 7 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
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Flora of Pakistan @ eFloras.org
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S. I. Ali & M. Qaiser
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eFloras.org
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Description

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Evergreen tree, upto 13 m tall. Young branches pilose, becoming glabrous. Leaves lanceolate, 21.5-30.0 x 3.7-5.6 cm, tapering to a fine point, margins undulate, glossy above, glabrous on both sides (juvenile leaves tomentose). Petiole 4-8 mm long, glabrous. Peduncle 3-11 mm long, axillary, pubescent, 6-many flowered, usually pendant. Pedicel 23-30 mm, pubescent. Bract minute, caducous, bracteole semi-amplexicaule, densely hairy. Sepals broadly deltiod, 2 x 2-3 mm, obtuse to subacute, ± free, pubescent on both sides. Petals narrow lanceolate, 10-19 x 2.5-3.5 mm, outer slightly smaller than the inner, tapering into a fine point, slightly undulate, pubescent on both sides, pale green to yellowish green. Receptacle convex. Stamens 1 mm long, anther subsessile, locules unequal, connective-tip subtruncate. Carpels free, c. 1.5 mm long, ovary glabrous except few hairs in the upper part, stigma subsessile, papillate. Fruit of 10-15 baccate monocarps on upto 37 mm long woody stalk. Mature mono-carp c. 20 mm long, ovoid, rounded at both ends, purplish black, 1-seeded, stipe c. 12 mm long, stout, glabrous.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of Pakistan Vol. 0: 7 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of Pakistan @ eFloras.org
editor
S. I. Ali & M. Qaiser
project
eFloras.org
original
visit source
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eFloras

Distribution

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Distribution: Indigenous to Sri Lanka, cultivated in India, Malaya, Pakistan and Tropical East Africa.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of Pakistan Vol. 0: 7 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of Pakistan @ eFloras.org
editor
S. I. Ali & M. Qaiser
project
eFloras.org
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eFloras

Flower/Fruit

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Fl. Per.: March-May.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of Pakistan Vol. 0: 7 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of Pakistan @ eFloras.org
editor
S. I. Ali & M. Qaiser
project
eFloras.org
original
visit source
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eFloras

Polyalthia longifolia

provided by wikipedia EN

Seeds and fruit of M. longifolium
M. longifolium var. pendula – leaves

Monoon longifolium, the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym Polyalthia longifolia, is an Asian small tree species in the family Annonaceae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced elsewhere in tropical Asia.[1] This evergreen tree is known to grow over 20 m. in height and is commonly planted due to its effectiveness in alleviating noise pollution. It exhibits symmetrical pyramidal growth with willowy weeping pendulous branches and long narrow lanceolate leaves with undulate margins.

Monoon longifolium is sometimes incorrectly identified as the ashoka tree (Saraca indica) because of the close resemblance of both trees. The cultivated, column-like pendula[3] form can appear to have no branches, but in fact a non-hybrid M. longifolium allowed to grow naturally (without trimming the branches out for decorative reasons) grows into a normal large tree giving plenty of shade.

Common names

Common names include false ashoka, the Buddha tree, Indian mast tree, and Indian fir tree. Its names in other languages include Ashoka in Sanskrit, Unboi (উনবৈ) or Debadaru (দেৱদাৰু) in Assamese, Debdaru in Bengali and Hindi ଦେବଦାରୁ Debadaru in odia Asopalav (Gujarati), Glodogan tiang (Indonesian), Ashok in Marathi and Nettilinkam நெட்டிலிங்கம் in Tamil, and araNamaram: അരണമരം (Malayalam). ಕಂಬದ ಮರ Kambada mara in Kannada

In British India

The False ashoka was cultivated and gained popularity in British India for nostalgic reasons because it resembled the tall, harrow Italian cypress; it also was used for ships' masts. It does not require pruning in order to maintain its tall, straight, main trunk with short, drooping branches.

Distribution

Found natively in India and Sri Lanka. It is introduced in gardens in many tropical countries around the world. It is, for example, widely used in parts of Jakarta in Indonesia and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

Leaves

Emerging leaves have a coppery brown pigmentation; as the leaves grow older, the color becomes a light green and, finally, a dark green. The leaves are lanceolate and have wavy edges. The leaves are larval food plant of the tailed jay and the kite swallowtail butterflies.

Flowering

Close up flowers in Hyderabad, India.

In spring, the tree is covered with delicate star-like pale green flowers. The flowering period lasts for a short period, usually two to three weeks.

Fruit is borne in clusters of 10–20, initially green but turning purple or black when ripe. These are eaten by birds such as the Asian koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, and fruit bats, including flying foxes.

Uses

The leaves are used for ornamental decoration during festivals. The tree is a focal point in gardens throughout India. The tree can be pruned into various shapes and maintained in required sizes. The flexible, straight and light-weight trunks were once used in the making of masts for sailing ships. Thus, the tree is also known as the Mast Tree. Today, its wood is mostly used for manufacturing small articles such as pencils, boxes, matchsticks, etc.[4] The oil of the seed has been confirmed to possess anti-oxidant, anti-lipooxygenase and antimicrobial (against various microbe strains) activities, among others.[5] Bankole et al 2016 find M. longifolium does control chloroquine resistant strains of Plasmodium berghei ANKA in mouse to some degree but is not an effective treatment.[6]

Methanolic extracts of Monoon longifolium have yielded 20 known and two new organic compounds, some of which show cytotoxic properties.[7] The fatty acid composition of the seed has also been reported [5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Plants of the World Online (POWO): Monoon longifolium (Sonn.) B.Xue & R.M.K.Saunders (retrieved 30 August 2020)
  2. ^ The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 6 January 2016
  3. ^ "Monoon longifolium var pendula". NParks. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  4. ^ "Polyalthia Longifolia The Mast Tree". The Lovely Plants.
  5. ^ a b Atolani O.; Areh E.T.; Oguntoye O.S.; et al., 2019 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00044-019-02301-z
  6. ^ Dkhil, Mohamed A.; Al-Quraishy, Saleh; Al-Shaebi, Esam M.; Abdel-Gaber, Rewaida; Thagfan, Felwa Abdullah; Qasem, Mahmood A.A. (2021). "Medicinal plants as a fight against murine blood-stage malaria". Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences. Saudi Biological Society (Elsevier). 28 (3): 1723–1738. doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.12.014. ISSN 1319-562X. PMC 7938113. PMID 33732056.
  7. ^ Chen, Chung-Yi; Fang-Rong Chang; Yao-Ching Shih; Tian-Jye Hsieh; Yi-Chen Chia; Huang-Yi Tseng; Hua-Chien Chen; Shu-Jen Chen; Ming-Chu Hsu; Yang-Chang Wu (2000). "Cytotoxic Constituents of Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula". Journal of Natural Products. 63 (11): 1475–1478. doi:10.1021/np000176e. PMID 11087586. S0163-3864(00)00176-2. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
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Polyalthia longifolia: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN
Seeds and fruit of M. longifolium M. longifolium var. pendula – leaves

Monoon longifolium, the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym Polyalthia longifolia, is an Asian small tree species in the family Annonaceae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced elsewhere in tropical Asia. This evergreen tree is known to grow over 20 m. in height and is commonly planted due to its effectiveness in alleviating noise pollution. It exhibits symmetrical pyramidal growth with willowy weeping pendulous branches and long narrow lanceolate leaves with undulate margins.

Monoon longifolium is sometimes incorrectly identified as the ashoka tree (Saraca indica) because of the close resemblance of both trees. The cultivated, column-like pendula form can appear to have no branches, but in fact a non-hybrid M. longifolium allowed to grow naturally (without trimming the branches out for decorative reasons) grows into a normal large tree giving plenty of shade.

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Wikipedia authors and editors
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wikipedia EN