Holigarna nigra Bourd. (ANACARDIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Chere.
Tamil: Cherei.
Description: Trees, 10-15 m tall with black juice; branches glabrous. Leaves alternate, spathulate, up to 12x 6cm, base narrowed into 1-2 cm long petiole, obtuse or retuse at apex, glabrous, spars early deciduous. Flowers in up to 8 cm long, dark purple pubescencent panicles, white. Bisexual flowers bracteate, pedicillate. Calyx copular, 5-lobed. Petals 5, ovate, pubescent inside. Stamens 5. Disc 5 lobed. The ovary is inferior, tomentose, and 1-loculed, with three recurved styles. The fruit is a drupe, reaching up to 3 x 1.7 cm, glabrous, turning black and resinous when ripe. It contains a single seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: February – July.
Distribution: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats between 650 – 1300 m. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic. The black and caustic juice of the plant is used as varnish.
