Diospyros angustifolia (Miq.) Kosterm - EBENACEAE

Synonym : Maba angustifoliaMiq.; Diospyros nigrescens (Dalz.) Saldanha

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Notes Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees, up to 10 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark brown, tubercled; blaze light orange yellow.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete with short internodes; terminal young branchlets densely fulvous hirsute.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole to 0.5 cm long, terete, rufous hairy when young; lamina 2.2-8 x 1-2.5 cm, narrow-elliptic, apex bluntly acute to obtuse, base acute, margin thick and distinctly undulate, coriaceous, hairy when young, otherwise glabrous above; secondary_nerves ca. 7 pairs, branched; tertiary_nerves distinctly reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers dioecious; male flowers 3 in axillary clusters; female flowers solitary, axillary, corolla white.
Fruit and Seed : Berry, ellipsoid, to 1 cm long; fruiting_calyx_lobes 3, slightly enlarged; 1-3 seeded.

Ecology :

Along margins of low elevation evergreen forests up to 700 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- mostly confined to Central Sahyadri above Chikmagalur Region.

Notes :

Recently this species has been merged with D. neilgherrensis (Wt.) Kosterm. (Ref.: Monograph on Indian Diospyros, Singh, 2005), however, we keep this species distinctly since it belongs to different ecological zone.

Literatures :

Sri Lanka J. Sci. 12: 106. 197l; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 335. 1996; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 768. 1993 (re. ed).

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