Canthium dicoccum (Gaertn.) Teys. & Binn. var. umbellatum (Wt.) Sant. & Merch. - RUBIACEAE

Synonym : Canthium umbellatum Wt.; Plectronia didyma (Gaertn. f.) Kurz var. umbellata (Wt.) Gamble ; Psydrax umbellata (Wt.) Bridson

Vernacular names : Tamil: Nanjul, NallamandharamMalayalam: Nanyul

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 12 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark grey, smooth, irregularly fissured and flaky when mature; blaze cream.
Branchlets : Young branchlets usually quadrangular, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; stipules interpetiolar linear with broad base, to 0.9 cm long; petiole 0.6-1 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 6-15 x 2.5-7 cm, elliptic, apex acuminate, base cuneate, margin entire, coriaceous, shining above, glabrous beneath; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves 4-7 pairs, domatia present at axills; tertiary_nerves obscure.
Flowers : Inflorescence axillary cymes.
Fruit& seed : Drupe ovoid; pedicel 1.5 cm long.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in evergreen to semi-evergreen forests up to 1900 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia and China; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literature :

Bull. Bot. Surv. India 3: 107. 1961; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 624. 1993 (re. ed); Bridson, Kew Bull. 48: 762. 1993; Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 233. 2004; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 3:55. 2001.

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