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Elaeocarpus
serratus L. var. serratus
Synonym : Elaeocarpus oblongus Gaertn.
Family
: Elaeocarpaceae
Local Names
: Bhadraksham, Kara, Wild
Olive tree, Ceylon Olive
Flowering
and fruiting period:
April – September
Distribution: Indo-Malaysia
Habitat: Semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
IUCN
status:
Data Deficient
Endemic: No
Uses: Fruits edible, antidiarrheal. The leaves are antirheumatic and an
antidote to poisoning. The astringent fruits are used in the treatment of
dysentery and diarrhoea.
Key
Characters:
Trees, to 20 m high, aerial roots on
large buttresses; bark brown, mottled with grey. Leaves simple, alternate,
elliptic-obovate, margin crenate-serrate. Flowers bisexual, white, in axillary
racemes. Sepals 5, ovate, valvate. Petals 5, laciniate, inserted round the base
of glandular disc. Stamens many, inserted between the glands on the disc. Ovary
superior, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell. Fruit a drupe, green.
