Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) var. neilgherrensis (Wight) Bakh. (EBENACEAE)
Description: Trees, up to 10 m tall; young parts hirsute; bark smooth, greyish brown. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5-5 x 1-2 cm, narrowed at base, acuminate usually obtusely at apex, chartaceous. Flowers unisexual, 3-merous. Calyx campanulate, lobes 3, short, triangular. Corolla campanulate, lobes 3, oblong. Male flowers: 1-3 flowers in subsessile cymes. Stamens 6-12; anthers linear; ovary rudiment, hairy. Female flowers: ovary 3-celled; style 3-lobed at apex. The fruit, either spherical or ellipsoidal, measures approximately 1 cm in length, typically brownish, with a cup-shaped calyx during fruiting. Within, there is a single smooth seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: February – August.
Distribution: India: South Deccan Peninsula. Common in Western Ghats, Nilgiris, Pulneys and hills of Tinnevelly, up to 2000 m in shola forests, hills of N. Coimbatore.Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Sri Lanka, Malaya Peninsula.
