Holigarna grahamii (Wight) Kurz (ANACARDIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Malechere.
Malayalam: Bipti, Balwali.
Description: Trees, up to 30 m tall; young branches tomentose. Leaves alternate, crowded at the ends of branchlets, oblanceolate, 23-35×8-23 cm, narrowed below the middle, cuneate at base, shortly acuminate at apex, rusty – pubescent beneath; petiole up to 4 cm long, with 1-2 pairs of spurs. Flowers in up to 35 cm long, rusty tomentose panicles, unisexual. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 5. Male flowers 2 mm across, sessile, greenish white. Staments 5. Disc 5-lobed, cupular. Female flowers 8 mm across. Ovary inferior, 1-loculed; styles 3. The fruit is a drupe, obliquely ovoid, measuring 1.5-2 x 1-1.5 cm, partially enclosed by a rusty tomentose hypocarp. It contains a single seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: January – May.
Distribution: India: Moist deciduous to evergreen forests of Western Ghats. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic. A threatened species.