Strombosia ceylanica Gard. - OLACACEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Kalavarai; Kalkadamba; Kalmanikkam

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees up to 30 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark greenish-grey, cratered; blaze reddish.
Branches and branchlets : Branches horizontal; branchlets green, slender, dropping, terete, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate distichous; petiole 0.8-2.2 cm long, canaliculate, usually upper half stouter, glabrous; lamina 8-18 x 4-6.5 cm, usually ovate to oblong-ovate, apex slightly acuminate to acute or obtuse, base rounded to slightly attenuate, margin entire, subcoriaceous, glabrous beneath; midrib slightly raised above; secondary_nerves 4-6 pairs, ascending; tertiary_nerves slender, horizontally reticulo-percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence axillary cymes or clusters on short tubercles; flowers subsessile, greenish-white.
Fruit and Seed : Drupe, club shaped when young later globose, deep purple when ripe; seed one.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests up to 700 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 6: 350. 1846; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 191.1997 (re.ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 93. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 68. 1996; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 222. 1903; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 1:237. 1996.

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