''Macaranga peltata'' is a plant found in northern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

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 one of the most widely occurring early successional woody species in Sri Lanka, specially in low country wet zone. Some of the many common names include kenda - කැන්ද or kanda in Sri Lanka and chandada in India.

Description

It is a resinous tree, up to tall. Young parts are velvet hairy. Leaves measure by , are alternately arranged, circular or broadly ovate, entire or minutely

dentate Dentate may refer to: * A species having dentition * An energy-dissipating baffle block in a spillway * An individual not being edentulous * Dentate gyrus of the hippocampus * Dentate nucleus of the cerebellum * Denticity in chemistry * Dentat ...

, and palmately 9-nerved. The leaf stalk is attached on the lower surface of the leaf, not on the base. Yellow-green flowers occur in long

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s in leaf

axils A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

in the months of January to February. Male flowers are minute, numerous, and clustered in the axils of large

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s. One round, black seed is in a spherical capsule 4 to 5 mm across. Macaranga peltata Exudates resinous from Cut Ends

Ecology

''Mallotus tetracoccus'' is a pioneer or early-successional or early-secondarySreejith, K. A. 2005
Ecological and Ecophysiological studies on the successional status of tree seedlings in tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Kerala.
PhD Thesis, Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun. 148 pages. tree species more common in forest edges, clearings, and secondary forests than in mature forest interiors. Ecophysiological studies indicate that ''Macaranga peltata'' shows a combination of high quantum use efficiency of photosynthetic system ( Fv/Fm) and relative growth rates under higher light conditions, similar in pattern to other pioneer species such as ''

Mallotus tetracoccus ''Mallotus tetracoccus'', also known as the rusty kamala, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is a tree species found in parts of south Asia, typically occurring in the edges of tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergre ...

''.

Uses

Kenda leaves are commonly used for flavoring in Sri Lanka. Halapa dough is often flattened on a kenda leaf to soak in the flavor. Kenda leaves are used to wrap

jaggery Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can ...

and other sweetmeats. Today the major use of ''Macranga peltata'' is for making wooden pencils and in the plywood industry.

Kollam Kollam (), also known by its former name Quilon , is an ancient seaport and city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The city i ...

produces 75 to 100 truck loads of pencil slats.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3595172 peltata Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China