Diospyros barberi Ramas. - EBENACEAE

Vernacular names : Tamil: Karinthavarai, Karinthali.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 25 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark black with longitudinal fissures.
Branches and Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, appressed pubescent, matured ones glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.6-0.9 cm, canaliculate; lamina 5-8 x 1.3-2.5 cm, elliptic-lanceolate, apex acute or gradually acuminate with blunt tip, base acute to attenuate, coriaceous; midrib flat; secondary_nerves ca. 6 pairs, ascending, lower most pairs close; tertiary_nerves prominently reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers unisexual; male flowers sessile on axillary short peduncle; female flowers solitary with large leathery folded foliaceous calyx lobes.
Fruit and Seed : Berry, globose, ca. 4 cm across, black pubescent; seeds 4, oblong, compressed.

Ecology :

Subcanopy trees in medium elevation wet evergreen forests between 700 and 1000 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- in Agasthyamalai Hills, South Sahyadri.

Literatures :

J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 10: 47.t. 34. 1914; Singh, Monograph on Indian Diospyros L. (Persimmon, Ebony) Ebenaceae. 50. 2005; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 774. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 269. 2004.

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