Dichapetalum gelonioides (Roxb.) Engl. subsp. gelonioides Leenh. (DICHAPETALACEAE)
Description: Small trees or shrubs, up to 12 m tall; branchlets pubescent. Leaves elliptic, 5-12 x 2-4.5 cm, acute at base, long- acuminate or caudate at apex, glabrous. Inflorescence of 7-10 flowers in axillary clusters. Sepals 5, unequal, ovate-elliptic, obtuse connate at base. Petals 5, oblong, deeply notched at apex. Disc 5-lobed. Stamens 5. Ovary 2-3 locular, downy tomentose. The fruit is a drupe, transversely oblong or obcordate, often divided into one or two lobes, densely covered in greyish-yellow tomentum, exhibiting a scarlet, fleshy mesocarp. Typically, there are two seeds within.
Flowering : March – June.
Fruiting : August – December.
Distribution: India: In wet evergreen forests of North eastern hill states and Western Ghats, up to 1500 m. Assam, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Myanmar, China, Thailand, Malesia and Sri Lanka.
