Tarena asiatica (L.) Kuntze ex K. Schumann (RUBIACEAE)
Common names
Tamil: Kura.
Telugu: Komi.
Description: Evergreen trees, up to 12 m tall; young parts often resinous. Leaves opposite, elliptic-lanceolate, ca 10 x 3 cm, rounded at base, shortly acuminate at apex, coriaceous, shining, turning black in drying. Flowers in terminal corymbose cymes, white, fragrant. Calyx tube ovoid, lobes 5, persistent. Corolla tube funnel-shaped, lobes 5, white. Stamens 5, adnate to the mouth of corolla tube; filaments short. The ovary has two locules, and the style is short with a fusiform stigma. The fruit is a small, globose berry, around 6 mm in diameter, turning dark blue when ripe. Inside, there are numerous plano-convex seeds that are white.
Flowering & Fruiting : November – May.
Distribution: India: Common in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests in plain. Indomalesia.