Litsea travancorica Gamble - LAURACEAE

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Status Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Trees up to 4 m tall.
Habit : Young branchlets subterete, ferruginously tomentose.
Branches and Branchlets : Leaves simple, usually subopposite at the ends of the branchlets; petiole 1 cm long, slightly canaliculate above, brown tomentose; lamina 8-18 x 2.5-5.5 cm, elliptic-oblong to obovate, apex acuminate, base obtuse to acute, chartaceous, fulvous pubescent beneath, at least on nerves, glaucous beneath; midrib canaliculate; secondary_nerves 8-12, looped; tertiary_nerves distantly percurrent.
Leaves : Flowers yellowish in axillary umbels, sessile.
Inflorescence / Flower : Berry, globose, ca.1 cm across, on a cup shaped, shortly lobed fruiting_perianth tubes.

Ecology :

Rare understorey trees in low elevation wet evergreen forests up to 600 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the Western_Ghats- windward side of Agasthyamalai Hills.

Status :

Endangered (IUCN, 2000).

Literatures :

Kew Bull. 132. 1925; J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. Vol. 29 (4): 828-830; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 1237.1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 400. 2004.