Garcinia spicata

Garcinia spicata Hook.f., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 14: 486 1875. (syn: Garcinia ovalifolia (Roxb.) Hook. fil. ex T. Anders.; Garcinia spicata var. glomerata Vesque; Stalagmitis ovalifolia (Roxb.) G. Don; Xanthochymus ovalifolius Roxb.; Xanthochymus spicatus Wight & Arn.);

India (Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala), Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago (introduced) as per Catalogue of Life;

Evergreen trees; to 25 m high, bark 10-12 mm, yellowish-brown mottled with white, smooth hoop-ringed, brittle; blaze creamy-yellow; exudation milky, white to yellowish-green, sticky; branches horizontal; branchlets opposite, 6-ribbed; very young twigs and inflorescence densely minutely pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, estipulate; petiole 10-20 mm, stout, often pubescent initially, grooved above; lamina 7-22 x 4-8 cm, ovate-elliptic, elliptic-oblong or oblong base acute or obtuse, apex obtuse, emarginate or obtusely acute, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 12-20 pairs, parallel, arched towards the margin forming intramarginal nerve, prominent, secondary laterals prominent, intercostae laxly reticulate, prominent. Flowers polygamodioecious, white, in the axils of leaves or fallen leaves; male flowers: in axillary fascicles or pseudo-spikes; bracts minute, pilose; pedicels slender, 6-12 mm long; sepals 4 or 5, 3 x 4 mm, pale green, suborbicular, concave, the outer two coriaceous, the inner larger, thinner, margin ciliate; petals 5, white, obovate, concave, membranous; stamens in 5 erect, long clawed spathulate fascicles, opposite to petals; anthers didymous; pistillode clavate, smooth; female flowers: solitary, axillary or paired, usually on much more longer pedicels than the male; staminoides 5, small with weak anthers; ovary superior, globose, terete, 4-celled, ovule one in each cell; style 1 mm long; stigma peltate, lobed to the centre, lobes cuneiform. Fruit a berry, broadly oblong, yellowish, smooth, with bad odour, pulp sweet, acidic, bitter after taste, 3-4 cm across,; seeds 1-3, up to 2.5 cm long, oblong, latterly flattened, testa brown, veined.

Flowering and fruiting: March-August

Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests

India and Sri Lanka

(attribution- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)
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