1023

 Drypetes confertiflora(Hook.f.) Pax & Hoffm

Synonym	:	Cyclostemon confertiflorus Hook.f.
Family	:	EUPHORBIACEAE
Local name	:	Malayalam- Kaduvapidukkan
Flowering and fruiting period	:	February-May
Distribution	:	Southern Western Ghats
Distribution in kerala	:	Thrissur, Kollam, Malappuram, Kannur
Habitat	:	Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
IUCN Status	:	Vulnerable
Uses	:	Not Known
Key botanical characters: Trees, to 25 m high; bark greyish, smooth; branchlets glabrous, brownish, terete. Leaves simple, alternate, ., oblong or elliptic-oblong, apex obtusely acuminate, base oblique, margin entire or distantly serrate, glabrous and glossy, coriaceous; stipules lateral, small, caducous; petiole 5-12 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lateral nerves 7-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers unisexual, axillary but usually in clusters on old wood. Male flowers: pedicels 4-5 mm long; tepals 5-6, 4-6 × 3.5-5.5 mm, suborbicular, white, ciliate; stamens 15-20; filaments glabrous; inserted around disc; anthers oblong. Disc impressed, large, glabrous, radiately ribbed with inflexed marginal lobe. Female flowers: nearly sessile; ovary superior, brown tomentose, 2-celled, ovules 2. Fruit a drupe, 3.5-5 cm across, subglobose, some what flattened, pubescent, 2-locular; endocarp fleshy.