554
Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng.
Synonym
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Antidesma
andamanicum Hook.f.
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Family
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Phyllanthaceae
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Local name
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English - Chinese laurel, Salamander tree
Malayalam - Neelathali, Noolithali
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Flowering and fruiting period
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March-May
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Distribution
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Indo-Malesia
to Australia and South China
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Distribution in Kerala
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Idukki, Kasaragode, Malappuram, Kannur, Palakkad,
Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode
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Habitat
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Evergreen
forests, also in sacred groves
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IUCN Status
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Least concerned
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Uses
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The
fruits are used for making wine, tea, jams and jellies.
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Key
Botanical Characters:
Trees, up to
10 m high; bark dark brown; branchlets greyish-brown, lenticellate, initially
rufous or brown-tomentellous or sparsely white pilose, soon glabrous. Leaves
simple, alternate, stipulate; lamina elliptic, elliptic-oblong or
elliptic-obovate, oblong, oblong-lanceolate or oblanceolate, base cuneate,
round, acute or subacute, apex acuminate. Flowers unisexual, reddish; male
flowers: in spikes, terminal or often axillary or terminating the lateral
shoots, solitary or 2-3 together;stamens 3, inserted into the cavities of the
disc, anthers orbicular. Female flowers: terminal and axillary, solitary or
in pair ovule 2; glabrous. Perianth glabrous, 4-lobed up to midway; lobes
deltoid, ciliate at margin; ovary superior, ovoid, glabrous, ovule 2 in each
cell; styles 3, terminal, erect. Fruit a drupe, suborbicular to ovoid or wide
ellipsoid, slightly compressed, glabrous, red when ripe.
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