Dilip Walse Patil

Scientific Name : Melaleuca citrina (Curtis) Dum.Cours.

Category : Angiosperms

Status : Alive

Habit : A large tree having branched, tap root with crimson-yellow to red flowers. Stem : Woody but upper portions herbaceous, erect, branched, cylindrical and solid. Leaves : Ramal and cauline, simple, alternate, entire, acute, gland dotted, leathery, unicostate reticulate venation, with inframarginal veins. Inflorescence : Pendant spike, 4 to 8 inches long. Flowers : Bracteate, bracts caduceus but sometimes green, leafy and persistent, pedicellate or shortly stalked, complete, hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, pentamerous, epigynous, crimson-yellow to bright red. Calyx composed of 5 sepals, gamosepalous, imbricate, persistent, small and green. Corolla composed of 5 petals, polypetalous, obovate, quincuncial, small and coloured. Androecium made up of many stamens, polyandrous, filaments long, basally connate an form a staminal sheath, dithecous, dorsifixed, introrse, filaments bright red, giving the same colour to the flower. Gynoecium is bi to tetracarpellary, generally tricarpellary, syncarpous, inferior, number of the locules as many as the carpels, many ovules in each locule, axile placentation, style long and curved, stigma flat. Fruit : A capsule Flowering and Fruiting Time : February - April Significance : It is an ornamental tree cultivated in gardens for its beautiful red flowers.