| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Euphorbiaceae |
| Local Name | Kommatti |
| Habit | Small sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Trees to 10 m high, bark grey, smooth; branchlets 2-5 mm thick, brownish or greyish. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules lateral, minute; petiole 10-30 mm long, slender, glabrous; lamina 3-13 x 1.5-5 cm, elliptic, oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, base acute, obtuse or round, apex acuminate or acute, margin crenulate-serrulate or entire, glabrous, glossy above, coriaceous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers unisexual, pale green; male flowers: in axillary spikes of 3.5-12.5 cm long, 2-3 together in an axil with a series of spirally arranged bracts; each bract subtending one male flower: bracteoles narrow, on with either side of the flower, lacinate, large glands on either side, sessile; tepals 3, 1.5 × 1 mm, lacinate; stamens 3, yellow; filaments free, to 2 mm long; anthers basifixed; female flowers: in axillary racemes of 4-8 cm long, 1-2 in each axil; pedicel 3 mm long; bracteoles as in male flower; tepals 3, 1.5 × 1 mm, lacinate, closely adpressed to the ovary; ovary superior, 1-1.5 mm across, tricarpellary, ovules one in each locule, pendulous; styles 3, simple, stout, spreading, spreading, recurved; stigma 3, glandular. Fruit a capsule 4-5 x 8-10 mm, depressed globose, crustaceous, 3-celled, black; pedicels 3-5 mm long; seeds 3, globose. |