Blachia umbellata Baill. - EUPHORBIACEAE

Synonym : Croton umbellatus Willd.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 5 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark smooth, pale brown.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, glabrous.
Exudates : Whitish sap from the cut end of leaves and twigs.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate or subopposite or sometimes spiral; stipules caducous; petiole 0.5-4.5 cm long, canaliculate, glabrous; lamina 5-15 x 2.5-4.5 cm, elliptic to obovate to oblanceolate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base gradually acute to cuneate, margin entire, subcoriaceous, glabrous; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves 6-8 pairs; tertiary_nerves admedially_ramified.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers unisexual; male flowers in slender pedunculate umbels; female flowers terminal fascicles.
Fruit and Seed : Capsule, globose, deeply 3-lobed; fruiting_calyx erect; seeds 3.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in evergreen forests up to 1100 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- South Sahyadri and Central Sahyadri (up to Coorg Region).

Literatures :

Etud. Gen. Euphorb. 387. 18. 1858; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 1338. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 411. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 121. 1996.

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