Diospyros humilis Bourd. - EBENACEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Meruvalam.  English: Ebony

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 10 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark greyish black, small flaky; blaze dull red.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets terete, pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole to 0.2-0.4 cm long, terete, pubescent; lamina 4-11 x 1.5-4.5 cm, usually elliptic to elliptic-ovate, apex acuminate with blunt tip, base acute to rounded, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous above, densely pubescent on midrib beneath; midrib canaliculate above; secondary_nerves 6-8 pairs, slender; tertiary_nerves slender, weakly percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers unisexual; male flowers in fascicled cymes; female flowers axillary, solitary.
Fruit and Seed : Berry, oblong or globose, 1.5 cm across, glabrous; fruiting_calyx not enlarged; seeds 2-4.

Ecology :

Understorey trees in wet evergreen forests between 400 and 1000 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- Agasthyamalai Hills.

Literatures :

J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc.12: 352. t. 4. 1899; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 773. 1993(re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 271. 2004.

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