59
Diospyros
buxifolia (Blume) Hiern.
Synonym : Diospyros microphylla Bedd.
Family
: Ebenaceae
Local Names
: Elichuzhi
Flowering
and fruiting period:
March – May
Distribution: Indo-Malaysia
Habitat: Evergreen and
semi-evergreen forests
IUCN
status:
Data Deficient
Endemic: Yes
Uses: Timber yielding. It
produces black heart-wood which is said to supply the best Malacca ebony. The
timber was used for building.
Key
Characters:
Diospyros buxifolia are trees with
bark blackish-grey, mottled with white.
Leaves simple, alternate, bifarious, elliptic-ovate. Flowers unisexual, white.
Male flowers: 1-4 together in subsessile small axillary cymes; calyx densely
fulvous-hairy outside; lobes 4; corolla campanulate; lobes 4, orbicular;
stamens 16, in pairs, united by their filaments at base; anthers ovate. Female
flowers: solitary, subsessile; calyx and corolla as in males; ovary superior,
ovoid 4-celled, ovule 1 in each cell. Fruit a berry.
