Garcinia cowa

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Evergreen trees, to 15 m high, bark smooth, surface greyish-brown; blaze creamy-yellow; exudation yellow, sticky, scanty; branches horizontal; branchlets quadrangular, drooping. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate, estipulate; petiole 8-13 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 8-17 x 2.5-7 cm, elliptic-oblong, oblanceolate or broadly lanceolate, base acute, attenuate or cuneate, apex acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, thickly coriaceous; lateral nerves 15-21 pairs, pinnate, ascending, slender, prominent, looped along the margin forming intramarginal nerve, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers dioecious, small, yellow; male flowers: to 1 cm across, 3-8 in axillary or terminal fascicles; pedicels about 6 mm long; sepals 4, 4-6 mm long, unequal, broadly ovate, fleshy, yellow; petals 4, 8-10 mm long, oblong, yellow flushed with pink or red; stamens numerous on a convex fleshy receptacle; anthers oblong; filaments short; rudimentary pistil absent; female flowers: upto 1.5 cm across, 2-5 in terminal fascicles, longer than male flowers, yellow; pedicel short; staminodes in a ring of 4 bundles of 3-8 around the ovary; filaments unequal; ovary superior, subglobose, 6-8 locular, ovules one in each cell; stigma sessile, flat, deeply divided into 6-8, papillose, wedge shaped rays. Fruit a berry, 2-4 cm across, depressed, globose, with 4-8 vertical grooves, smooth, yellow, ridid, beaked; seeds 4-8, oblong with a soft aril.

Flowering and fruiting: December-September
Evergreen and shola forests
India to Indo-China
Garcinia sp. for ID : Attachments (1). 5 posts by 4 authors.
Date : 21-03-2014.
Habitat : Wild. Habit : Small or Small to medium-sized evergreen tree.
Note : Fruit yellow when ripe, edible.

Garcinia xanthochymus

The leave & flowers resemble Garcinia gummigutta-The malabar tamarind.

Garcinia – some species in India & eFI with some keys
efi page on Garcinia xanthochymus
It may not be Garcinia gummigutta as I presume the post plant is from Mizoram.

It is Garcinia cowa

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Garcinia cowa (Clusiaceae) : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (1)
Here is the photo of a Common Garcinia tree with edible fruits in the Andamans.
Flowering in August, at low altitudes.
Photo by courtesy of Dr. Vinod Maina.

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Garcinia (Clusiaceae) for ID : 4 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (1)
Location: Andaman Islands
Habit: Tree
Habitat:  Inland hill forests
Abundance: Common
Suggested ID: G. cowa or G. xanthochymus.

Of the two, it appears close to Garcinia cowa Roxb. ex Choisy as per the following:

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Fwd: Regarding identification of a species to eflora India : 7 posts by 3 authors. 4 images.
Good evening sir herewith I am attaching the photographs of species needs for identification.

Garcinia sp, Clusiaceae member, And add some information as per rules …, about habit, habitat and locality, 

Habit Tree, Habitat  near stream and location Keunjar Odisha

I think it is close to the images at Garcinia cowa Roxb. ex Choisy

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MS, May, 2023/11 Garcinia sp. for id: 4 images.
Location : Hmuifang, Mizoram

Altitude : ca.1,400 m
Date : 30-05-2023
Habit : Small evergreen tree
Habitat : Wild

Garcinia cowa Roxb. !

Going by the keys in post at MS,Jan.,2023/06 Tree for id., I think it appears to be possible and as per images at
https://efloraofindia.com/2014/04/04/garcinia-cowa/
https://www.fruitipedia.com/2018/12/cowa_garcinia-cowa/
But I am not sure.

 

 

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References:
The Plant List Ver.1.1  India Biodiversity Portal  GARCINIA COWA Roxb. – Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh  Indian Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated Dictionary edited by C.P. Khare  Springer Link