Octotropis travancorica Bedd. - RUBIACEAE

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution status Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large shrub or small trees up to 5 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark grey, scaly; blaze pale brown.
Branchlets : Branches horizontal and dichotomous; branchlets angular, terete when mature, glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; stipules ovate, interpetiolar, caducous and leaving scar; petioles ca. 0.5 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, glabrous; lamina 8.5-16 x 3-6 cm, elliptic-lanceolate, apex caudate-acuminate, base acute, margin entire, chartaceous, glabrous; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves ca. 8 pairs; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate.
Flowers : Inflorescence axillary or supra-axillary, pedunculate corymbs; flowers white; pedicel slender, 0.3 cm long.
Fruit& seed : Berry; seed one. .

Ecology :

Understorey trees in wet evergreen forests between 900 and 1500 m.

Distribution :

Endemic to the southern Western_Ghats- Agasthyamalai and Periyar Region.

status :

Rare (Nayar, 1997).

Literature :

Fl. Sylv. T. 327. 1873; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 627. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 226. 2004.

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