www.malaysianherbals.com-Tecoma stans-(97)ஸ்வர்ணபட்டி

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Common names                              ஸ்வர்ணபட்டி

 Yellow bells, ginger-thomas, tecoma, trumpet flower, trumpetbush, yellow elder, yellow trumpet bush.                    

Yellow Tecoma is a genus of 14 species of shrubs or small trees in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae. Twelve species are from the Americas, while the other two species are African. The American species range from the extreme southern United Statesthrough Central America and the Antilles south through Andean South America to northern Argentina. The generic name is derived from the Nahuatl word tecomaxochitl, which was applied by the indigenous peoples of Mexico to plants with tubular flowers. trumpet flower, yellow trumpet flowers, yellow trumpetbush, yellowbells, yellow-elder

A large shrub or small, much-branched, tree usually growing 1.5 to 5 m tall, but occasionally reaching 10 m in height.

The younger stems are smooth, hairless (glabrous) and greenish in colour. They are slightly four-angled in cross-section (quadrangular) and turn pale brown or reddish-brown in colour as they age. The bark on the main stem is light brown to pale grey in colour, furrowed, and relatively rough in texture.

The leaves (10-25 cm long) are arranged in pairs (oppositely arranged) and are borne on slender stalks (petioles) 1-9 cm long. They are compound (pinnate) with 3-13 leaflets, but usually have 3-7 leaflets. The leaflets are narrowly egg-shaped in outline with broad end at base (ovate-lanceolate) or elongated in shape (25-100 mm long and 8-30 mm wide) and have a pointed tip (acuminate apex). Their margins are irregularly and sharply toothed (serrated) and they are mostly hairless (glabrous), though a few hairs may be present on their undersides near the midrib.

The showy flowers are borne in several-flowered clusters (5-15 cm long) that are first produced at the ends of the branches (interminal clusters), and then later in the leaf forks (axils) near the tips of the branches (in axillary clusters). These flowers are bright yellow in colour, tubular in shape, and borne on short stalks (pedicels) that are somewhat curved or twisted. The flower tube (corolla tube) is 30-50 mm long and has five rounded lobes that are 8-30 mm long. There are several faint reddish lines in the throat of the flower, which is slightly ridged and hairy. Flowering may occur throughout the year.

The fruit are large, elongated (linear), and somewhat flattened (compressed) capsules (10-30 cm long and 5-20 mm wide). These fruit turn from green to brown in colour as they mature and finally split open to release numerous papery seeds.

The seeds are very flat, oblong in shape (7-8 mm long and about 4 mm wide), and have a transparent wing at each end (the size of entire seed including the wings is about 20 x 6 mm).

        

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