Diospyros buxifolia (Bl.) Heirn. - EBENACEAE

Synonym : Leucoxylum buxifoliumBlume ; Diospyros microphyllaBedd.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Chinna thuvarei, Irambali, Irampalai, Irumbalim Mari thovarai, Kattu thovarai, Karianthov  Malayalam: Kattathovara

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 30 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark black, often flaky.
Branches and Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, densely covered by long hairs; young trees with verticillate branches.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.1 cm, subsessile; lamina to 2-4 x 1-1.5 cm, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, acute at both ends, chartaceous, yellowish silky hairy throughout when young, glabrous when mature, drying dark brown above pale brown beneath; midrib canaliculate above; secondary_nerves 3-5 pairs, not prominent; tertiary_nerves obscure.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers unisexual, dioecious; male flowers 1-4 together in small subsessile axillary cyme; female flowers solitary, axillary, subsessile.
Fruit and Seed : Berry, oblong, to 1.4 cm long with persistent_calyx, 1 or 2-seeded.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in evergreen to semi-evergreen forests up to 900 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- common trees in forests of Central and North Malanad in Central Sahyadri; also found in openings in South Sahyadri.

Literatures :

Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 12: 218. 1873; Singh, Monograph on Indian Diospyros L. (Persimmon, Ebony) Ebenaceae. 57. 2005; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 776. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 270. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 335. 1996.

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