Sapium insigne (Royle) Benth. & Hook. f. (EUPHORBIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Kannu pade.
Tulu: Kanappati.
Tamil: Sakkarakkalli.
Description: Small deciduous trees up to 8 m tall; juice milky. Leaves opposite, crowded at the ends of branchlets, elliptic, oblong-lanceolate to obovate, attenuate at base, acute to acuminate at apex with crenate-serrate margin, bright green; petioles up to 5 cm long, glandular. Flowers appearing when the tree is bare of leaves, in terminal, up to 20 cm long, robust spikes; the female spike much thickened in fruit. Male flowers are grouped in sessile clusters, with several in each bract, while female flowers are solitary in each bract. The perianth lobes number 2 or 3. Stamens are 2, with free filaments. The ovary is glabrous, and there are three styles. The capsules are ovoid, approximately 0.9 cm in diameter, and fleshy, containing orbicular seeds.
Flowering : January.
Fruiting: March – April.
Distribution: India: Himalayas from Simla and Kumaon, Assam and Western Peninsula. Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh.
Uses: Wood very soft and spongy, suitable for floats, packing-cases, toys, drums, sandals and matchboxes. Milky juice acrid and vesicant.