Atalantia racemosa Wight

കാട്ടുനാരകം

Family : RUTACEAE

Synonym :

 Sclerostylis racemosa (Wight) Wight

Common Names : Kattunaragam, Cherukoortham

Flowering Period : October-January

Distribution : Sri Lanka and Peninsular India

Habitat : Evergreen, semi-evergreen and dry deciduous forests

Uses : Antimicrobial

Key Characters :

Small trees; branchlets cylindric, glabrous or minutely puperulous, often armed with strong, axillary spines or rarely unarmed. Leaves unfoliolate; 4.5-8-15 x 2-4.5 cm, ovate-oblong to oblong-elliptic or obovate, cuneate at base, obtuse or shortly acuminate at apex with ca 5 mm long acumen, crenulate or subentire along margins, dark green above, pale beneath, coriaceous, glabrous, emarginate tip; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs; petioles 5-10 mm long, shallowly channelled above or obscurely marginated, articulate above at base of blade, pubescent to glabrous. Flowers in axillary racemes; peduncles single or sometimes fascicled, up to 4 cm long, pubescent or glabrous; bracteoles subulate, minute, ciliolate; pedicels slender, 3-8 mm long, shortly pubescent to glabrous. Sepals 3-5, triangular to suborbicular, subacute, ca1.5 mm long, scarious and ciliate along margins. Petals usually 4, broadly elliptic or linear-oblong to obovate, obtuse, 6-8 x 2-4 mm, glandular, penninerved, glabrous, white. Stamens 8, as long as or slightly longer than petals; filaments usually connate into a partial basal tube, occasionally 1 or 2 free; anthers ovoid or oblong, cordate at base, 1-2 mm long, subdorsifixed. Disk annular, ca 0.5 mm high, ca 1.5 mm fleshy, glabrous; stigma capitate without stylar canals. Ovary eglandular, 2-celled. Berry subglobose, 2 cm across.