| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Ebenaceae |
| Local Name | Karimaram |
| Habit | Medium sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Dioecious trees, to 20 m high, bark dark brown with superficial ridges; blaze dull yellow; branchlets slender, sparsely, minutely adpressed-pilose apically. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 7-15 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 6.5-15 x 2-7 cm, elliptic, oblanceolate, obovate or obovate-oblong, base cuneate or acute, apex subacute, obtuse or round, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers unisexual, yellowish-white, in short fascicles, usually in the axils of fallen leaves; male flowers: calyx broadly campanulate, lobes 4-5, ovate, 3 mm, thick, appressed-hairy, margin ciliate, acute; corolla tubular-campanulate, thin fleshy; tube 4 mm long; lobes 4, ovate, acute, 1.5 mm long, twisted, spreading; stamens 14-20, paired, unequal; female flowers: subsessile, 1 cm across; calyx broadly campanulate; lobes 4-5, 4 mm long, ovate, appressed hairy without, acute, margin ciliate; corolla tubular-campanulate, 4 mm long, thin fleshy; lobes 5, 3 mm long, ovate, subacute, strongly reflexed; staminodes 4, spathulate, 4 mm long, sometimes lacking; ovary superior, 3 mm long, globose, appressed pubescent, 4-celled, ovule 1-in each cell; stigma 4-lobed, subsessile. Fruit a berry, 1-2 cm across, pubescent when young, glabrous later; calyx strongly reflexed, tawny-pubescent; endosperm equable. |