Diospyros candolleana Wight

Habit: Tree

Dioecious trees, to 15 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, greenish-black, smooth; young shoots pubescent. leaves simple, alternate, bifarious, estipulate; petiole 8-14 mm long stout, grooved above, rugose, glabrous; lamina 7-15 x 2.5-5 cm, oblong or elliptic-oblong, base acute, attenuate, cuneate or obtuse, apex obtusely acuminate, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous when mature, lateral nerves 9-11 pairs, slender, pinnate, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual, pale yellow; male flowers: 7-8 mm across, sessile, in dense tawny tomentose, axillary fascicles; calyx 5 mm long, tomentose; lobes 5, ovate, acute or subobtuse; corolla urceolate, more than twice as long as the calyx, fulvous-hairy outside; lobes 5, ovate, acute; stamens 10, in unequal pairs; filaments glabrous; anthers lanceolate, acute; female flowers: 10-12 mm across, sessile, 2-10 in tawny tomentose, axillary fascicles; calyx hairy on both side; lobes 5, ovate, acute, margin reflexed; staminodes 4 or 5; ovary superior, tomentose, 4-celled, ovules 1 in each cell; style 2-5, slender, tomentose; stigma hairy. Fruit a berry, 2.5 cm long, conical, green; calyx flat or shallowly cupuliform, the lobes triangular with reflexed margins; seeds 3-4, usually compressed; endosperm ruminate.

Endemic to the Western Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Maharashtra: Kolhapur, Pune, Ratnagiri Karnataka: Chikmagalur, Coorg, Hassan, N. Kanara, Shimoga, S. Kanara Kerala: Idukki, Kasaragod, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram Tamil Nadu: Nilgiri