Holigarna nigra Bourd. - ANACARDIACEAE

Vernacular names : Malayalam: Ceri, Cheri

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees, often buttressed, up to 35 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark fissured.
Branches and Branchlets : Branchlets rough, stout, glabrous.
Exudates : Latex dirty white turns to black.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends; petiole 1-2.5 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous, with a pair of caducous spurs; lamina 6.5-16 x 3-5 cm, oblanceolate to narrow obovate, apex rounded or sometimes emarginate, base cuneate to decurrent, margin entire or sometimes revolute when dry, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib flat or raised above; secondary_nerves 6-11 pairs; tertiary_nerves reticulate.
Inflorescence / Flower : Inflorescence terminal panicle, dark purple-brown tomentose; flowers polygamous, petals ovate, pubescent inside.
Fruit and Seed : Drupe, ellipsoid-oblong, striate (usually after drying) 3.8 x 1.5 cm, 1-seeded.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in low and medium elevation wet evergreen forests between 400 and 1200m.

Distribution :

Endemic to Western_Ghats, fairly common in South Sahyadri and rare in Central Sahyadri.

Literatures :

Indian For. 30: 95. 1904; Gamble, Fl. Madras 1: 268. 1997 (re. ed); Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 2: 205. 1996; Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 112. 2004.

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