Clausena indica (Dalz.) Oliver

കാട്ടുമുന്തിരി

Family : RUTACEAE

Synonym :

Piptostylis indica Dalz.

Common Names : Kattumunthiri, Gorakotta

Flowering Period : February-June

Distribution : Peninsular India and Sri Lanka

Habitat : Shrub to Small Tree

Uses : fruit edible.

Key Characters :

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves pinnate, alternate, up to 25 cm long ; leaflets 7-13, alternate and opposite, 3.5-7.5 x 2-3.5 cm, elliptic or elliptic-ovate to oblong, obtuse or abruptly acuminate at apex, oblique at base, subentire or crenulate and often with pubescent glands along margins, glabrous, gland dots raised on both surfaces; petiole and rachis slightly zig-zag, puberulous or glabrous petiolules 3-6 mm long, puberulous; lateral nerves 5-8 pairs, faint above, rather prominent beneath, spreading, tertiaries indistinct. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate corymbose cymes, up to 10 cm long, peduncle and branches densely puberulous. Flowers globose in buds, borne on short (2 mm long) pedicels; bracts minute, deltate, ciliate. Sepals deltate, acute or rounded, ca 0.5 mm long, ciliate. Petals oblong, acute, ca 3.5 x 1.2 mm, white, glandular, glabrous. Stamens 10; filaments subulate above, dilated below, ca 2 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, ca 1 mm long. Ovary subglobose, ca 15 mm long, glabrous, papillate-glandular, 3-locular, each with one or two pendulous ovules; style very short, thick, cylindric, inserted in the depression at top of ovary, caduceus; stigma capitate, broader than style. Berries globose, ca 15 mm across, yellowish-white when ripe; 1-seeded.