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|synonyms_ref= |}} ''Millettia pinnata'' is a species of tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, native in tropical and temperate Asia including parts of India, China, Japan, Malesia, Australia and Pacific islands.〔 It is often known by the synonym ''Pongamia pinnata'' as it was moved to the genus ''Millettia'' only recently. Common names include Indian beech, Pongam oiltree, karanj (Hindi), ಹೊಂಗೆ honge (Kannada), புங்கை pungai (Tamil), కానుగ kānuga (Telugu), नक्तमाल naktamāla (Sanskrit). ==Description== ''Millettia pinnata'' is a legume tree that grows to about in height with a large canopy which spreads equally wide. It may be deciduous for short periods. It has a straight or crooked trunk, in diameter, with grey-brown bark which is smooth or vertically fissured. Branches are glabrous with pale stipulate scars. The imparipinnate leaves of the tree alternate and are short-stalked, rounded or cuneate at the base, ovate or oblong along the length, obtuse-acuminate at the apex, and not toothed on the edges. They are a soft, shiny burgundy when young and mature to a glossy, deep green as the season progresses with prominent veins underneath. Flowering generally starts after 3–4 years with small clusters of white, purple, and pink flowers blossoming throughout the year. The raceme-like inflorescence bear two to four flowers which are strongly fragrant and grow to be long. The calyx of the flowers is bell-shaped and truncate, while the corolla is a rounded ovate shape with basal auricles and often with a central blotch of green color.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Weed Risk Assessment : Pongamia )〕 Croppings of indehiscent pods can occur by 4–6 years. The brown seed pods appear immediately after flowering and mature in 10 to 11 months. The pods are thick-walled, smooth, somewhat flattened and elliptical, but slightly curved with a short, curved point. The pods contain within them one or two bean-like brownish-red seeds, but because they do not split open naturally the pods need to decompose before the seeds can germinate. The seeds are about long with a brittle, oily coat and are unpalatable to herbivores.〔〔 Naturally distributed in tropical and temperate Asia, from India to Japan to Thailand to Malesia to north and north-eastern Australia to some Pacific islands;〔〔 It has been propagated and distributed further around the world in humid and subtropical environments from sea-level to 1200m, although in the Himalayan foothills it is not found above 600m.〔(Pongamia pinnata - a nitrogen fixing tree for oilseed )〕 Withstanding temperatures slightly below 0 °C (32 °F) and up to about 50 °C (120 °F) and annual rainfall of 500–2,500 mm (20–100 in), the tree grows wild on sandy and rocky soils, including oolitic limestone, and will grow in most soil types, even with its roots in salt water. The tree is well suited to intense heat and sunlight and its dense network of lateral roots and its thick, long taproot make it drought-tolerant. The dense shade it provides slows the evaporation of surface water and its root nodules promote nitrogen fixation, a symbiotic process by which gaseous nitrogen (N2) from the air is converted into ammonium (NH4+, a form of nitrogen available to the plant). M. pinnata is also a fresh water flooded forest species as it can survive total submergence in sweet water for few months continuously. M. pinnata tree is the pioneer tree in Ratargul fresh water flooded forest in Bangladesh and Tonlesap lake swamp forests in Cambodia ''Millettia pinnata'' is an outbreeding diploid legume tree, with a diploid chromosome number of 22.〔 Root nodules are of the determinate type (as those on soybean and common bean) formed by the causative bacterium ''Bradyrhizobium''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Millettia pinnata」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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