Litsea coriaceae (Heyne ex Wall.) Hook. f.

Type
Indigenous
Family
Lauraceae
Synonym
Tetranthera coriaceae Heyne ex Wall.
Local Name
Maravettithali
Local Name 2
Neerola
Habit
Medium sized tree
Botanical Features

Dioecious trees, to 12 m high, bark pale brown, thinly scaly; branchlets puberulous, rather slender. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 5-10 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 8.5-17.5 x 2.5-7.5 cm, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-ovate, base acute or cuneate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous above, minutely puberulous beneath; lateral nerves 6-9 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual, white, in 4-flowered axillary, subsessile, crowded, umbels; bracts 4, silky; perianth tube funnel shaped, finely silky, lobes 6; stamens 12, in 4 rows; those of rows 1 and 2 usually eglandular, glands of those opposite to tepals very large; staminodes in female flowers as the stamens of males, but those of inner rows subulate and 2-glandular; ovary half inferior, ovoid; style slender; stigma small, erect. Fruit a berry, 10-12 mm long, ovoid, greenish-white, seated on a thickened perianth tube.