Diospyros ebenum Koenig (EBENACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Balemara, Karimara.
Malayalam: Karu, Misha tumpi.
Tamil: Acha, Thumbe.
Telugu: Nalluti, Tumiki.
Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 15 meters. Their bark is finely longitudinally cracked and typically dark grey. The leaves are arranged alternately, elliptic to oblong, measuring up to 16 by 5.5 cm, with bases that are either acute or rounded and apices that are obtuse or acuminate. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow. Male flowers in short axillary cymes. Calyx 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular. Corolla tubular, 4-lobed, with oblong rounded lobes, white. Stamens about 35, very unequal; anthers apiculate, pistillode O. Female flowers solitary. Calyx much larger than in male, deeply devided. Staminodes 8. Ovary 8-celled. Fruit a berry, subglobose, ca 2×1.5cm, seated on a ring at base of spreading calyx lobes. Seeds 8, smooth, dull black.
Flowering & Fruiting: February – August
Distribution: India: Frequent in semi-evergreen to evergreen forests across Ghats.Sri Lanka.
Uses: The fruits are edible. Wood very hard, dark coloured. One of the most valuable woods in fancy wood market. Used for ornamental carving and turnery. It is used for veneers, inlaying, musical instruments, sports goods, mathematical instruments, piano keys and caskets. The plant is a fish poison. The plant is astringent, attenuant and lithotriptic.
