1444

 

Ilex malabarica Bedd.

Synonym	:	Ilex wightiana Dalz. & Gibs.
Family	:	Aquifoliaceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	June-September
Distribution	:	Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	Idukki, Wayanad
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests
Endemic/Exotic	:	Endemic to western ghats
Uses	:	The creamy-white wood is soft, light and close-grained. It is used for tea boxes and packing material.
Key botanical characters: Trees, to 25 m high; bark greyish, branches glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 6-15 mm, slender, glabrous, grooved above; lamina 4.5-11.5 x 1.5-3.5 cm, elliptic or elliptic-oblong; base acute, or cuneate, apex acute or acuminate, often mucronate, margin entire, glabrous, shiny above, coriaceous, glabrous, dark green and shining above, very pale beneath; lateral nerves 4-11 pairs, slender, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual, white, 6-merous; male: in short axillary panicled umbellules; pedicels 6-8 mm long, slender; calyx 6-lobed, ovate, puberulous outside, ciliate, persistent; petals 4-6, white, orbicular, connate at base; disc 0;. stamens 4-6, filaments short, inserted at the base of the corolla, anthers broadly oblong; pistillode with 4 minute stigmas; female: solitary or in fascicles, very rarely pedunculate; pedicels 6-8 mm long, slender; calyx as in males; petals 4-6, orbicular, ciliate, connation lesser than that in male; staminodes hypogynous; ovary globose; style short, thick; stigma large, absolutely 6-lobed. Fruit a drupe, depressed globose, small, puberulous, red, 6-celled, crowned by the thick style and supported by the persistent calyx.