Holigarna beddomei Hook. f. (ANACARDIACEAE)
Common name
Tamil: Palvidinyan.
Description: Trees up to 25 m tall with black juice. Leaves alternate, ovate or oblanceolate, up to 35 x 12 cm, abruptly broad above the middle, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, rusty tomentose beneath; petioles up to 4 cm long, tomentose, with slender spurs, caducous. Flowers both bisexual and male, in axillary and terminal panicles, 2 mm across, tomentose. Calyx copular, 5-lobed. Petals 5. Stamens 5. Disc 5-lobed, copular, with a tuft of hairs at the centre. Ovary inferior, 1-loculed, tomentose; styles 3. The fruit is a drupe, obliquely ovoid, measuring approximately 1.5 x 1 cm, partially enclosed within a tomentose hypocarp. It contains a solitary seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: January – June.
Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats, up to 1000 m. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.