Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Synonyms
Family
Wood - Construction: The wood from the trunk is used as firewood, while the higher-quality sections are employed in house construction and furniture making. It is also valued as a medicinal plant and is traded for its medicinal properties (Bhattrai et al. 2022).
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal
It grows in moist, well-drained soils in forests, often along riverbanks and valleys in the broad-leaf forests in the sub-Himalayan regions at altitudes of 1500-2100 m asl).
Its wood is used in the production of incense sticks, as it is slow-burning.
It is an evergreen tree with a dense crown and grows up to 25 m tall.
Stem is erect and often branched, with a smooth, grayish-brown bark when young, becoming rough and fissured with age. The wood is hard and durable.
Leaves alternate, slightly clustered or evenly spaced, elliptic to slightly obovate or slightly ovate, 6–19 × 2–5.5 cm, base cuneate to rounded, apex acute or slightly acuminate, margin flat or slightly inrolled, underside slightly glaucous, glabrous, secondary veins 6–14, tertiary venation reticulate-scalariform, not particularly prominent below. Petioles 1–2.2 cm.
Inflorescences 5–9 cm, glabrous often glaucous. Pedicels 4–9 mm. Flowers pale yellow to pale green, 4–6 mm long, more or less glabrous outside. Tepals dimorphic, ovate to elliptic or oblong, 3–5.5 mm, glabrous to tomentose within. Fertile stamens 4–4.5 mm, the innermost whorl the longest. Staminodes 2 mm. Ovary and style glabrous.
The fruit is a fleshy, purple-black drupe, obovoid or ellipsoid, and about 1-2 cm in diameter. It contains a single, hard seed. The fruits are edible but have a bitter taste.
Flowering: March – April
Fruiting: July – September