| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Ebenaceae |
| Local Name | Karinthali |
| Habit | Small sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Evergreen dioecious trees, to 20 m high, bark 4-6 mm thick, black, mottled with green and white, cracked; outer bark 1 mm thick, dark black, dead, inner bark 4-5 mm thick, brittle, yellowish-brown; blaze yellow; branchlets thinly tomentose. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 5-10 mm long, slender, glabrous; lamina 7-17.5 x 3.5-6.5 cm, ovate, obovate, oblong, elliptic-oblong or elliptic-obovate, base acute or unequally round, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; lateral nerves 4-7 pairs, lowest pair usually opposite, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent, pellucid. Flowers unisexual, pale yellow, sessile; male flowers 7-8 mm across, in dense axillary cymes; female flowers larger, solitary; peduncle 3-5 mm long, covered with imbricating bracts; calyx 2 mm long, cupular, densely tomentose in female; lobes 4, ovate, obtuse, glabrous, margin ciliate, reflexed; corolla 10 mm long, salver shaped, densely minutely tomentose; lobes 4, 6 x 4 mm, ovate, acute, tomentose outside; stamens 36, in groups of 4; filaments glabrous, unequal; anthers shortly unequal, acute, connective thinly villous along the back; ovary superior, 8-celled, ovule 1-in each cell. Fruit a berry, globose, green, smooth. |