554


Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng.

Synonym
:
Antidesma andamanicum Hook.f.
Family
:
Phyllanthaceae
Local name
:
English - Chinese laurel, Salamander tree
Malayalam - Neelathali, Noolithali
Flowering and fruiting period
:
March-May
Distribution
:
Indo-Malesia to Australia and South China
Distribution in Kerala
:
Idukki, Kasaragode, Malappuram, Kannur, Palakkad, Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode
Habitat
:
Evergreen forests, also in sacred groves
IUCN Status
:
Least concerned
Uses
:
The fruits are used for making wine, tea, jams and jellies.
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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