Strombosia ceylanica Gardn.

Habit: Large shrub

Trees, to 25 m high, bark 3-4 mm thick, smooth, greenish-grey mottled with green, with shallow annular depression; blaze deep pink-red, lamellate with concentric lighter striations; branches drooping; branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 10-15 mm, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 8-18 x 3.5-6 cm, oblong-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, base obtuse, acute or round, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, coriaceous, glabrous, lower surface papillate, nerves 3 from the base, lateral nerves 4-6 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae subscalariform, obscure. Flowers bisexual, 1.5-2 mm across, greenish-white, in axillary cymes; pedicels 1.5 mm long; calyx 1 mm long, cupular, accrescent, 5-lobed; petals 5, 2.5 x 1 mm, free, oblong, ovate, tomentose inside; stamens 5, opposite the petals and adnate to them, anthers introrse; ovary imperfectly 4-5-celled, surrounded by a lobed disc, ovules 4-5, pendulous; style short. Fruit a drupe 2.5 cm long, pyriform, deep purple rugose, surrounded by the remains of calyx lobes and style; stone crustaceous, seed one.

Maharashtra: Pune, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg Karnataka: N. Kanara, Shimoga, S. Kanara Kerala: Idukki, Kollam, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur Tamil Nadu: Tirunelveli

Indomalayasia; in the Western Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.