Clausena indica (Dalz.) Oliver

Habit: Small Tree

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, up to 25 cm long; petiole and rachis slightly zig-zag, puberulous or glabrous; leaflets 7-13, alternate and opposite, 3.5-7.5 x 2-3.5 cm, elliptic or elliptic-ovate to oblong, oblique at base, obtuse or abruptly acuminate at apex, subentire or crenulate and often with pubescent glands along margins, glabrous, gland dots raised on both surfaces; petiolules 3-6 mm long, puberulous; lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, faint above, rather prominent beneath, spreading, tertiaries indistinct. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate corymbose cymes, up to 10 cm long, peduncle and branches densely puberulous. Flowers globose in buds, borne on short (2 mm long) pedicels; bracts minute, deltate, ciliate. Sepals deltate, acute or rounded, ca 0.5 mm long, ciliate. Petals oblong, acute, ca 3.5 x 1.2 mm, white, glandular, glabrous. Stamens 10; filaments subulate above, dilated below, ca 2 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, ca 1 mm long. Ovary subglobose, ca 15 mm long, glabrous, papillate-glandular, 3-locular, each with one or two pendulous ovules; style very short, thick, cylindric, inserted in the depression at top of ovary, caduceus; stigma capitate, broader than style. Berries globose, ca 15 mm across, yellowish when ripe; 1-seeded.

Peninsular India and Sri Lanka; in the Western Ghats- rare in South Sahyadri and frequent in Central and Maharashtra Sahyadris.

Maharashtra: Kolhapur, Sindhudurg Karnataka: Belgaum, N. Kanara, Shimoga Kerala: Idukki, Kannur, Malapuram, Palakkad, Thrissur Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Kanniyakumari, Nilgiri, Theni