|
Diospyros oocarpa
|
|
|
|
Family:
EBENACEAE
|
|
Citation: Diospyros oocarpa Thw., Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 180.1860; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 3:560.1882; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 774(544). 1923; M. Mohanan & Henry, Fl. Thiruvanthapuram 280. 1994; V. Singh, Monogr. Indian Diospyros 182. 2005.
|
|
Malayalam Name(s):
Karunkali
|
|
Tamil name(s):
|
|
English name(s):
|
|
Description:
Trees, to 20 m high, base of the straight bole sometimes fluted; buttresses small, concave; bark 3-5 mm thick, yellowish to pale brown, peeling off in large irregular pieces leaving scalloped pits; branchlets slender, softly hirsute. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 5-9 mm long, slender, grooved above, densely hirsute; lamina 4-9 x 2-5 cm, ovate or elliptic-oblong, base round, subcordate or cuneate, apex obtusely acuminate or subacute, margin entire, fulvous hairy on both sides, often glabrescent above except the depressed midrib, chartaceous; lateral nerves 6-10 pairs, pinnate, slender inconspicuous, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual; male flowers: 3-7 together, subsessile, in axillary fulvous-silky cymes; bracts round, concave, silky hairy; calyx barrel shaped, silky; lobes 4, indistinct; corolla tubular, yellow, pubescent outside, throat narrow; lobes 3-4, about equaling the tube, ovate-oblong, much imbricate in bud; stamens 9-14, unequal, single or in pairs; filaments glabrous; anthers pilose; pistillode none or a hairy disc present; female flowers: 1-3 together, similar to and slightly larger than the male; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes 3, epipetalous; ovary superior, globose, hairy, 6-8-celled, ovule 1-in each cell; stigmas 1-3, short. Fruit a berry, oblong-ovoid, wider at the top, apiculate, glabrous, black, seated on a slightly enlarged, funnel shaped calyx; seeds oblong with 2 longitudinal groove; endosperm equbale.
|
|
Habit:
Tree
|
|
Flowering & Fruiting:
March-August
|
|
District(s):
Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki
|
|
Medicinal:
|
|
Habitat:
Evergreen forests
|
|
Distribution:
South India and Sri Lanka
|
|
Aquatic:
No
|
|
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
|
Saprophyte:
No
|
|
Stem parasite:
No
|
|
Root parasite:
No
|
|
Flower colour(s):
Yellow
|
|
Weed:
No
|
|
Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
|
|
Exotic:
No
|
|
Garden:
No
|
|
Edible:
No
|
|
Vegetable:
No
|
|
Endemic to:
|
|
IUCN status:
|
|
Altitude:
|
|
Localities:
Merchiston
|