Symplocos macrocarpa Wt. ex Clarke ssp. macrocarpa - SYMPLOCACEAE

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Vernacular names : Tamil: ParaleiMalayalam: Malamparala, Malaparala

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution status Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 8 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark brownish, smooth, lenticellate; blaze rosy.
Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, rusty pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petiole 0.5-1.3 cm long, stout, canaliculate, rusty pubescent when young, later glabrous; lamina 7-16 x 2-5.5 cm, narrow elliptic to oblanceolate, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate, base acute to cuneate, margin serrate, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib canaliculate above; secondary_nerves 9-12 pairs; tertiary_nerves reticulo-percurrent.
Flowers : Inflorescence condensed spikes; flowers sessile.
Fruit& seed : Drupe, ellipsoid, ca. 3 x 1.5 cm, white; seed shallowly furrowed.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in wet evergreen forests between 700 and 1100 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the southern Western_Ghats – Agasthyamalai.

status :

Vulneable (IUCN, 2000).

Literature :

Beddome, For. Man. Bot. 150. 1872 & Ic. t. 116. 1868-1874; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 782. 1993 (re.ed.); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 273. 2004; Nootboom, Rev. Symplocac. 221. 1975.

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