Alphonsea sclerocarpa Thw. - ANNONACEAE

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees, up to 6 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark finely fissured.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets slender, terete, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.5-0.7 cm long, glabrous, minutely pubescent; lamina 5-8 x 1.8-3 cm; lanceolate, apex obtuse, base acute to attenuate, chartaceous, glabrous; midrib flat above; secondary_nerves ca.10 pairs; tertiary_nerves coarsely reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flower fascicled on very short axillary peduncle, solitary, pedicels 0.5-0.6 cm, pubescent.
Fruit and Seed : Aggregated berries, up to 6, subglobose, tomentose, tuberculate, more than 2-seeded, biseriate.

Ecology :

Understorey tree in dry evergreen, up to 600 m.

Distribution :

South India and Sri Lanka; in the Western_Ghats- South Sahyadri (common in Thirunelveli hills of Agasthyamalai range).

Literatures :

Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 11. 1858; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 23. 1997 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 15. 2004.

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