Canthium neilgherrense Wt. var. chartaceum (Gamble) Swamin. - RUBIACEAE

Synonym : Plectronia neilgherrense var. chartacea Gamble

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution status Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees up to 7 m tall.
Branchlets : Young branchlets slender, terete, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; stipules interpetiolar, caducous and leaving scar; petiole 0.5 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 10 x 4.5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, apex acute to shortly acuminate with blunt tip, base attenuate, margin entire, chartaceous, hirsute on both sides when young and only beneath when mature; midrib slightly raised above; secondary_nerves 6 pairs, slender; tertiary_nerves reticulate, sometimes obscure.
Flowers : Inflorescence axillary umbels; flowers white; pedicels 0.4 cm.
Fruit& seed : Drupe, obovate to obcordate, ca. 1.3 cm long; seeds 2.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in high elevation evergreen forests between 1600 and 2200 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- Nilgiris and Palani hills.

status :

Vulnerable (IUCN, 2000).

Literature :

Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 3: 4. t. 1064 (bis) 1846; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 625. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 210. 2004.

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