Chrysophyllum roxburghii Don - SAPOTACEAE

Synonym : Chrysophyllum lanceolatum (Bl.) DC

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Noolambazham, Pulichakka, Aatha, Athapala

English   Kannada   Tamil   

Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 30 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark dark grey, with longitudinally arranged corky lenticels; blaze cream.
Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, rusty tomentose, later glabrous.
Exudates : Latex white, profuse.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.5-0.8 cm long, canaliculate, pubescent when young, later glabrous; lamina 7-15 x 2-4 cm, narrow oblong to elliptic-oblong, apex caudate-acuminate with blunt tip, base slightly asymmetric and attenuate, margi.
Flowers : Inflorescence axillary dense clusters; flowers white; pedicel 0.3-0.5 cm long.
Fruit& seed : Berry, globose 2.5-3.5 cm across, 5-6 locular; seed 1, brown, shining, to 1.9 cm long.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in wet evergreen forests up to 1400 m.

Distribution :

Tropical Asia; in the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadri.

Literature :

Don, Gen. Hist. 4: 33. 1837-1838; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 758. 1993 (re.ed.); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 267. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 327.1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 89.1908.

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