Rapanea wightiana Mez. - MYRSINACEAE

Synonym : Myrsine capitellata Wall. var. lanceolata Cl.; Myrsine wightiana Wall. ex DC

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Cheeramaram

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees up to 10 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark greyish, lenticellate; blaze red.
Branches and branchlets : Young branchlets terete, glabrous with scars of fallen leaves.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, subverticillate; petiole 0.5-1 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 4-8 x 1-2.3 cm, elliptic-oblanceolate, apex obtuse, base attenuate, margin entire, transparent gland dotted and in lines, glabrous, coriaceous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves and tertiary_nerves obscure.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence sessile or shortly pedicelled umbels; flowers polygamous.
Fruit and Seed : Berry globose with persistent style; seed one.

Ecology :

Trees along margin of the high elevation evergreen forests between 1600 and 2200 m. .

Distribution :

South India and Sri Lanka; in the Western_Ghats- South Sahyadri and Nilgiri, and rare in Central Sahyadri.

Literatures :

Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 106. 1834; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 751.1993 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 266. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 352. 1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 83. 1908.

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