Frankly speaking the picture of the leaves shown here and those in another thread posted by you indicate the opposite ID. My belief The ratio of breadth to length(Of a leaf) is more in *Madhuca longifolia var.latifolia*.(Say 50%) (That's why it is called as latifolia)Broader leaves The ratio of breadth to length(Of a leaf) is less in Madhuca longifolia var.longifolia(Say 40%or less)...South Indian Mahua (That's why it is called as longifolia)Longer than broader but often overall smaller than the other one.) Of course as said earlier the main differentiating key is anthers in series 3 or 2 respectively.
On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 7:36 AM, raman <[email protected]> wrote: > South Indian Mahua is a variety of Mahua which is predominently found in > South India. It differs from the usual Mahua in that its leaves are > narrower. Mohua is one of the most important of Indian forest trees, not > because it may possess valuable timber - and it is hardly ever cut for this > purpose - but because of its delicious and nutritive flowers. It is a tree > of abundant growth and, to the people of Central India, it provides their > most important article of food as the flowers can be stored almost > indefinitely. It is large and deciduous with a thick, grey bark, vertically > cracked and wrinkled. Most of the leaves fall from February to April, and > during that time the musky-scented flowers appear. They hang in close > bunches of a dozen or so from the end of the gnarled, grey branchlets. The > reddish young leaves with the flower clusters look very attractive. The > flower stalks are green or pink and furry, about 5 cm. long. The > plum-coloured calyx is also furry and divides into four or five lobes; > within them lies the globular corolla, thick, juicy and creamy white. > Through small eyelet holes at the top, the yellow anthers can be seen. The > stamens are very short and adhere to the inner surface of the corolla; the > pistil is a long, protruding green tongue. It is at night that the tree > blooms and at dawn each short-lived flower falls to the ground. A couple of > months after the flowering period the fruit opens. They are fleshy, green > berries, quite large and containing from one to four shiny, brown seeds. > > Raman > -- Dr Satish Phadke
