Fagraea ceylanica Thunb. - LOGANIACEAE

Synonym : Fagraea obovata Wall.; Fagraea zeylanica Thunb.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees up to 10 m tall, strangler when young.
Trunk & Bark : Bark brownish, shallowly fissured; blaze white.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets corky, quadrangular, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, clustered at end of branchlets; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm long with decurrent leaf base, stipular sheathing at base; lamina 9-18x 4-8.5 cm, usually obovate, apex rounded to abruptly short acuminate, base narrow cuneate and decurrent, margin entire, fleshy, glabrous; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves obscurely visible, tertiary and higher order nerves not visible.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers large, in terminal cymes; petals yellow outside and white inside.
Fruit and Seed : Berry, ellipsoid to globose, apiculate, 3-5 cm wide with persistent_calyx lobes; seeds many.

Ecology :

In open evergreen forests up to 1800 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Vetensk. Acad. Handl. 3: 132. 1782; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 865. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 295. 2004; Keshava Murthy and Yoganarasimhan, Fl. Coorg (Kodagu) 287. 1990; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 183. 1902.

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