Mallotus stenanthus Muell. – Arg. (EUPHORBIACEAE)
Common name
Tamil: Karuvalichchi.
Description: Monoecious shrubs or small trees up to 8 m tall; branchlets compressed, yellow-glandulous. Leaves opposite, elliptic-ovate to lanceolate, up to 14 x 4.5 cm, narrowly rounded at base, acute or acuminate at apex, yellow- glandular beneath; peliole up to 1 cm long. Flowers in slender axillary and terminal racemes; male and female in separate axils. The male flowers exhibit a yellowish hue, with 4 perianth lobes that are stellately pubescent on the exterior. Numerous stamens are present. The capsules, measuring about 1 cm across, are densely yellow-glandular with a few scattered spines, and they are 3-lobed. The seeds are globose.
Flowering & Fruiting: January – July.
Distribution: India: In the undergrowth in semi-evergreen and evergreen forests of Western Peninsular India. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.