Talan

• Common Name In Sri Lanka:

  Talan

• Scientific Name:

  Litsea gardneri

• Other Names:

• Zone:

• Size of Tree:

• Status:

• Average Height:

  

  Up to 25 meters

• Identification

  Straight trunk with smelly, resinous, peeling, greyish bark. The young flush is reddish-brown. The stout branchlets are marked with leaf scars, angular towards the apex, light brown and velvety. The terminal bud is silvery, and give rise to brownish-purple young flush. Leaves are 8-15 cm long and 4-6 cm broad, spirally arranged, with short internodes, and are broadly elliptic in shape with an unequal, pointed base and a blunt apex with veins conspicuously impressed above. Flowers seen in compact clusters up to 2.5-7.5 cm in length on thick fleshy stalks. Male and female flowers are borne separately. The fruit is ovoid and about 1.0 cm.

• Habitat

  Canopy species in montane forests up to 1900 m. Also found in the lowlands.

• Special Notes

  An endemic tree