1373

  Blepharistemma serratum (Dennst.) Suresh

Synonym	:	Blepharistemma corymbosum Wall. ex Benth.
Family	:	Rhizophoraceae
Local name	:	Malayalam-Karumarachedi
Flowering and fruiting period	:	Flowering and fruiting: February-July
Distribution	:	Southern Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	Kannur, Kollam, Kottayam, Palakkad,Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur
Habitat	:	Moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
Endemic/Exotic	:	Endemic  toSouthern Western Ghats
IUCN Status	:	Vulnerable
Key botanical characters                      : Bark yellowish-brown, smooth, lenticellate; branchlets lenticellate; young shoots pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, stipulate; stipules interpetiolar, cauducous; petiole 6-10 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 4.5-15 x 2-7 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong or oblong, base acute or attenuate; glabrous, membranous; lateral nerves 5-9 pairs, slender, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers polygamodioecious, 4 mm across, white, in many flowered axillary cymes; bracteoles absent; calyx tube campanulate, adnate to the base of the ovary, lobes 4, erect; petals 4, clawed, spathulate, lacerate at apex, white, inserted around a 8-lobed disc, disc lobes long in male short in bisexuals; stamens 8, inserted on the margin of the disc, small in female, filaments ciliate, anthers oblong; ovary 3-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; style short in males, longer in female; stigma shortly 3-lobed. Fruit a 3-valved capsule, 6 mm across, yellowish, subglobose, acute; seeds covered with yellow aril.