Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng.

മയിൽകൊമ്പി

Family : EUPHORBIACEAE

Synonym : Stilago bunius L.

Common Names : Aryaporiyan, Cherutali, Mayilkombi, Neelathali, Noolithali, Chinese laurel, Salamander tree

Flowering Period : March-May

Distribution : Indo-Malesia to Australia and South China

Habitat : Evergreen forests, also in sacred groves

Uses : The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked and used in jellies, preserves etc. Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads or steamed and used as a side dish with rice. The leaves are sudorific and employed in treating snakebite in Asia. The leaves and roots are used as medicine for traumatic injury. The bark yields a strong fibre for rope and cordage.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 10 m high; bark dark brown; branchlets greyish-brown, lenticellate, initially rufous or brown-tomentellous or sparsely white pilose, soon glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate; stipules lateral, 4-5 x 1 mm, subulate or linear-lanceolate; petiole 3-10 mm long, slender, puberulous or pilose, finally glabrous; lamina 7-19 x 3-8 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong or elliptic-obovate, oblong, oblong-lanceolate or oblanceolate, base cuneate, round, acute or subacute, apex acuminate, apiculate or cuspidate, margin entire or irregularly and obscurely repand, glossy above, glabrous or often sparsely puberulous or pilose on midrib above towards base, glabrous beneath except for the bearded lower axils of the lateral nerves, coriaceous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent; domatia present. Flowers unisexual, reddish; male flowers: in spikes, terminal or often axillary or terminating the lateral shoots, solitary or 2-3 together; peduncle scattered tawny puberulous or thinly tomentellous; bracts 1-1.5 mm long, ovate-lanceolate; perianth cupular, 1 x 1-2 mm, sparsely puberulous to glabrous; lobes 4, shallow, suborbicular, ciliate; disc subglobose, lobed above; stamens 3, inserted into the cavities of the disc; anthers orbicular; pistillode capitate; female flowers: terminal and axillary, solitary or in pair ovule 2; peduncle scattered puberulous; bracts deltoid, conduplicate, deciduous; pedicel 0.5-2 mm long, puberulous, glabrous; perianth 0.5 x 1.5 mm, glabrous, 4-lobed upto midway; lobes deltoid, ciliate at margin; ovary superior, ovoid, 1-1.8 mm long, glabrous, 1-[ 2 ] locular, ovule 2 in each cell; styles 3, terminal, erect. Fruit a drupe, 5-6 x 4-6 mm, suborbicular to ovoid or wide ellipsoid, slightly compressed, glabrous, red when ripe.