Butea

Butea
Butea monosperma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Phaseoleae
Genus: Butea
Roxb. ex Willd.
Type species
Butea monosperma
(Lamarck) Kuntze
Species

Butea monosperma (Lamarck) Kuntze
Butea superba Roxb. ex Willd.

Butea or Flame of the Forest is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the pea family, Fabaceae. It has two species. [1]

Butea monosperma, also known as Flame of the Forest or Bastard Teak in English, Kingshuk or Palash in Bengali or Hindi, Kesudo or Khakhro in Gujarati, is native to India and Southeast Asia, where it is used for timber, resin, fodder, medicine, and dye.

Butea is also a host to the Lac insect, which produces natural lacquer. [2]

In West Bengal it is associated with Spring (season). Butea is named after John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792), member of parliament, prime minister for one year, and a patron of botany. [3]

Butea monosperma was originally named Erythrina monosperma by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1786 in his Encyclopédie Méthodique. [4] William Roxburgh erected the genus Butea in 1795, but it became a nomen invalidum. Carl Willdenow validated the name Butea in 1802.

Species

Forty-two names have been published in Butea, [5] but forty of these are either synonyms or names of species that have been transferred to other genera. [2]

References

  1. ^ Gwilym Lewis, Brian Schrire, Barbara MacKinder, and Mike Lock. 2005. Legumes of the World. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Richmond, England.
  2. ^ a b Munivenkatappa Sanjappa. 1987. "Revision of the genera Butea Roxb. ex Willd. and Meizotropis Voigt (Fabaceae)". Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 29:199-225.
  3. ^ Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume I. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington,DC;, USA. London, UK. ISBN 978-0-8493-2675-2.
  4. ^ Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. 1786. Encyclopédie Méthodique. Botanique. 2(1):391-392. In: Encyclopédie Méthodique par ordre de matieres. Charles Joseph Panckoucke: Paris, France. (see External links below).
  5. ^ Butea in International Plant Names Index. (see External links below).

External links