''Antidesma venosum'', commonly known as the tassel-berry, is a species of small

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the family

Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae is a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the ...

. It is native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. Numerous small, sessile flowers are produced on drooping catkin-like spikes, which are about 10 cm long. The flowers produce an unpleasant smell, and the tree is in fruit for more than a month during late summer. Each small, oval-shaped fruit measures about 8 x 4 mm in size. They are initially fleshy green, and change to bright red and eventually purplish black as they ripen. The fruit are utilized by many species of animal and bird.

References

Flora of Africa Flora of China Flora of Indo-China venosum Taxa named by Edmond Tulasne {{Phyllanthaceae-stub