Salacia agasthiamalana Udayan, Regy Yohannan & Pradeep, Edinburgh
J. Bot.
69(2): 255. 2012 [18 Jun 2012]
 
 

Scandent bushy shrubs; branchlets lenticellate, blackish. Leaves 5-6.5 3 x 2- 3.5 cm, elliptic, acute, acuminate or rounded-retuse at apex, acute or cuneate at base, coriaceous, margin serrate in young leaves become crenate in mature leaves, venation reticulodromous; petiole 0.5-0.7 cm long. Flowers 2-8, cauliflorous umbelliform cyme in dense fascicles from axillary or extra-axillary branches; pedicel 0.4-0.6 cm long. Sepals 5, oblong, brown, c. 0.1 cm long, much shorter than the petals, margins fimbriate. Petals 5, elliptic, 0.2 3 x 0.15 cm, green with a tinge of yellow when young but orange tinged towards the upper margins in older flowers. Disk green when young but with a faint orange tinge towards the base at maturity, 0.05 x 0.1 cm , conical, tapering to a short style. Anthers 3, rarely 4, discoid, creamywhite with brown tinge; filament slightly tri-radiate, creamy-white when young but yellowish with an orange tinge later. Ovary superior, 3-loculed; ovules 1 in each locule; stigma simple umbonate, pale green. Berry globose, smooth, 4-6 cm across, orange-red; seeds slightly plano-convex, 1.5-2 3 1-1.5 cm.

Flowering and fruiting: September-July
Evergreen forests
Southern Western Ghats (Kerala)

 
 
A New species of Salacia from Kerala: I am sending herewith a new species of Salacia published in Edinburgh journal of Botany, U.K recently in an attachment file.