Wendlandia thyrsoidea (Schult.) Steud. - RUBIACEAE

Synonym : Canthium thyrsoideum Schult.; Wendlandia notoniana Wall. ex Wt. & Arn.

Vernacular names : Tamil: Kadambam, ThovaraiMalayalam: Pekanarakam, Vellathalachedi, Puvu, ThovaraKannada: Torani, Thinthulu

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution status Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Small trees ca. 7 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark brown, fissured when mature; blaze reddish.
Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, minutely pubescent.
Leaves : Leaves simple, ternately whorled, sometimes opposite, decussate; stipules triangular with acuminate tip, interpetiolar; petiole 0.5-0.8 cm long, planoconvex in cross section, pubescent when young; lamina 5.5-10 x 1.8-4 cm, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, apex acuminate, base attenuate - decurrent, margin entire, chartaceous, pubescent beneath; midrib raised above; secondary_nerves ca. 8 pairs; tertiary_nerves broadly reticulate.
Flowers : Inflorescence dense terminal thyrsoid cymes; flowers whitish.
Fruit& seed : Loculicidal capsule, globose, 2-valved; seed many, small.

Ecology :

In open grass lands or along margins of evergreen forests between 400 and 1200 m.

Distribution :

Peninsular India and Sri Lanka; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

status :

Rare & Threatened (Ahmedullah & Nayar, 1986).

Literature :

Nomencl. Bot. (ed. 2) 2: 786. 1841; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 588. 1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 237. 2004; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 3:61. 2001; Cook, Fl. Bombay 1: 584.1903.

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