''Hildegardia populifolia'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...

. It is found only in the

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

; just about 20 trees are known to exist on the eastern slopes of the

Kalrayan Hills The Kalvarayan Hills are a major range of hills situated in the Eastern Ghats of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Along with the Pachaimalai, Alavaimalai, Javadi, and Shevaroy hills, they separate the Kaveri River basin to the south f ...

. This is a deciduous tree growing up to 20 meters tall. It has lobed leaves and panicles of flowers with red

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s and no petals. Most trees produce both male and bisexual flowers.Raju, A. J. S., Chandra, P. H., & Krishna, J. R. (2014)
Monoecy, anemophily, anemochory and regeneration ecology of ''Hildegardia populifolia'' (Roxb.) Schott. and Endl.(Malvaceae), an economically important endemic and endangered dry deciduous tree species of southern Eastern Ghats, India.
''Journal of Threatened Taxa'', 6(2), 5434-5446. The bee '' Trigona iridipennis'' feeds on the pollen and nectar. The flowers are visited by several bird species, such as the

red-vented bulbul The red-vented bulbul (''Pycnonotus cafer'') is a member of the bulbul family of passerines. It is a resident breeder across the Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka extending east to Burma and parts of Bhutan and Nepal. It has been introduc ...

(''Pycnonotus cafer''), rufous-backed shrike (''Lanius schach''),

blue-tailed bee-eater The blue-tailed bee-eater (''Merops philippinus'') is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia where many populations are strongly migratory, and seen seasonally in many pa ...

(''Merops philippinus''), and

stork-billed kingfisher The stork-billed kingfisher (''Pelargopsis capensis''), is a tree kingfisher which is widely but sparsely distributed in the tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India to Indonesia. This kingfisher is resident throughout its ran ...

(''Pelargopsis capensis''), some of which are predators of the bee.

References

Sterculioideae Endemic flora of India (region) Critically endangered plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Sterculioideae-stub