English: Pipli tree.
Genus: 3 species.
Region: eastern India, southern China, Malay Peninsula; introduced in United States.
Use: widely cultivated for their impressive foliage and valuable lumber.
BotanyEvergreen trees; 16 to 20 to 30 meters in height.
Stem: single, straight, free of branches 9 to 18 metres in forests; branches close to the ground in open fields; twigs have conspicuous nodes.
Leaves: simple, sometimes with 3 or 5 pointed lobes; thickly, leathery; entire; attractively reddish when immature; alternate; petioles are long; flutter in even a light breeze; venation; stipules are large and coherent; soon falling away.
Inflorescence: axillary; each with 7 to 16 flowers;
Flowers: small; bisexual; sepals lacking; petals often absent, small, white when present, interpreted sometimes as petaloid staminodes; stamens are 10 to 15 in number; anthers basifixed; each theca has one sporangium, open by one valve; ovary is half-inferior, consists of two carpels; ovules in each carpel 5, 6 or 8; styles are actually styluli, separate by definition, channeling the pollen tubes that invade them into only one carpel, each somewhat decurrent down one side of its stylulus.
Fruit: a 4-valved capsule; 2 separate locules, with 5 to 7 seeds, each splits into two valves.
Seeds: upper 4 or 5 are sterile and wingless; lowest one or two are fertile and narrowly winged; light, can travel far in a strong wind.