''Diospyros candolleana'', is a tree in the
Ebony family,
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to the
Western Ghats of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Sri Lanka. The trees are usually 20m tall, and found as
subcanopy trees in wet evergreen forests up to 90m.
Description
The bark of ''D. candolleana'' is smooth, dark, and blaze-reddish in color. Branchlets are terete and show adpressed hairs when young. Leaves are simple, alternate, distichous; petioles are 0.6-1.1 cm long and canaliculate. Leaves are hairy when young, and glabrous when mature. Lamina is about 6-18 x 3.5-7.5 cm in length, shape is oblong to elliptic-oblong.
Flowers are unisexual and dioecious.
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
of Male flowers show axillary clusters on very short tubercles, silky tomentose; and female flowers are sessile, in axillary clusters.
Fruits are as
berries
A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, rasp ...
and usually bear 4 seeds.
Uses
Use extensively in
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...
production. Timber is hard, and used in building constructions. A decoction of root-bark is used in rheumatism and swellings in traditional medicine.
References
External resources
*http://pilikula.com/botanical_list/botanical_name_d/diospyros_candolleana.html
*http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/10378
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13111175
candelleana
Flora of India (region)
Flora of Sri Lanka