Scientific Name: Tectona grandis L.f.

Synonyms: Jatus grandis (L.f.) Kuntze, Tectona theca Lour.   

Unique ID: 136

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: Gamopetalae                     

Series: Bicarpellatae

Order: Lamiales

Family: Verbenaceae

Common Names

English –Teak, Indian Oak

Malayalam – തേക്ക്

Tamil –  Thaekku

Hindi – Sagun

Description: Deciduous trees, to 30 m high, bark 10-20 mm thick, yellowish-brown, rough, shallowly vertically fissured, fibrous; blaze pale yellowish concentrically lamellate; bole often fluted at base; branchlets 5-10 mm thick, 4-angled, puberulous. Leaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 10-50 mm long, stout, tomentose; lamina 30-60 x 15-30 cm, ovate, obovate, base attenuate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, wavy, glabrous above and pubescent below with minute red glands, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, raised beneath, puberulent beneath; intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers bisexual, white, 7 mm across, in terminal cymose panicles, 10-30 cm across, puberulus; calyx 5 mm long, campanulate, lobes 5-6, subequal, ovate, tomentose; corolla 6 mm long, lobes 5-6, oblong, spreading; stamens 5-6, equal, erect, inserted at the throat, exserted; filaments 3 mm; anthers oblong; ovary globose, superior, densely hairy, 4-celled, 1 ovule in each cell; style slender, 4 mm; stigma linearly bifid. Fruit a drupe, 1.5-2 cm across, globose, brown, densely floccose hairy, covered by the inflated calyx, epicarp spongy, endocarp stony; seeds 1-4, oblong. Flowering and fruiting: May-January

Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, also raised in plantations

Distribution:  Native to Tropical Asia and Malesia. 

Uses:  Medicinal : Bark, Seed ; Good fuelwood ; Pest management: Leaf ; Wind break, Live fence, Nectar source, Culturally significant, Timber, Tanning and dyeing