| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Lauraceae |
| Local Name | Chembalamaram |
| Habit | Medium sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Lofty trees; branchlets glabrous lenticellate, black. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 10-12 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 7-12.5 x 2.5-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, base acute, apex obtuse, emarginate or somewhat acute, margin entire, glabrous, purple-glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint; reticulations areolate. Flowers bisexual, minute, in terminal and axillary panicles of 9 cm long; peduncle and pedicel slender, slightly fulvous-pubescent; bract and bracteoles small, soon deciduous; perianth tube ultimately narrowed at the top; lobes 6 in 2 rows, subequal; stamens 9 perfect, in 3 rows, those of the 2 outer series with eglandular filaments and introrse anthers, those of the third series with 2 glandular filaments and extrorse anthers; those of the fourth series replaced by 3 stipitate staminodes; connective often produced, of second and third series obtuse; anthers 2-celled; ovary half inferior, sessile, enclosed in the tube; style short, exserted. Fruit a drupe 30-37 x 15-18 mm, ovoid, black, longitudinally ribbed. |