Ochna gamblei

Small trees or shrubs with thick, brown or grey, bark and stout brachlets. Leaves alternate, usually clustered at the ends of branchlets, 5-13 x 3-8 cm, elliptic-ovate to obovate, apex rounded to obtuse, rarely acute, base cuneate-rounded to subcordate, narrowed into a short petiole upto 3 mm long, margins obscurely serrate, glaucous, nerves often irregular; stipules lanceolate, 4-6 mm long. Flowers 4 cm across, yellow, fragrant, borne in umbellate panicles; peduncles upto 1.5 cm long; sepals coriaceous, 1.3-2 cm long, elliptic-oblong; petals 5-12, a little longer than the sepals. Fruit compound, consisting of 3-6 drupes, oblong-ovoid, sessile, black when ripe, surrounded by the persistent calyx.

Family: Ochnaceae
Date: 17th April 2015
Place: Nandi Hills, Bangalore, Karnataka
Habit: Shrub/Small tree
Habitat: Scrub forest

Ochna species in eFloraofindia (with details/ keys from published papers/ regional floras/ FRLHT/ FOI/ Biotik/ efloras/ books etc., where ever available)

I received this mail on 23rd last month. To my surprise it also remains untouched. I will try with my century and half old lit., for FoC or FoP or eFI doesn’t provide me KEY. I wonder why my modern equipped friends remain silent!

It looks like Ochna obtusata.

Oh! yes, there is naming issue Sir.

So far as my knowledge goes, Ochna obtusata is different and distinct from O. squarrosa. Of course, O. squarrosa sensu FBI, non L. belongs here.

Certainly Sir, that’s why I wrote “All these are features of Ochna squarrosa L. of Flora of British India“.

And I also noted in FBI one of its synonyms was O. obtustata DC.

Now, I do not know what are the differences between squarrosa L. and squarrosa non L. Neither do I know if this plant is the type species or any var. or some other.
However, as I read my points I wrote in earlier mail I notice there is some mistake in point 3, it should be “sepals not much shorter than petals”.

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It may be Ochna squerosa-Ramdhan Champa

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Thank you …

1) Surajit sir, when I first posted this plant, I did not have access to some local flora which could have helped. I recently got a copy. Here is attached the key to species of Ochna in Karnataka (From Fl. Karnataka C.J. Saldanha). This was published in the 1970s.
2) Based on the key, would you agree that this comes close to Ochna obtusata var. gamblei (Brandis) Kanis? This name does not appear in the plantlist. My reasoning is (as per my observation)- leaves are around 6 cm long, Petals 2-2.3 cm long, most of the leaves rounded at apex and obscurely serrate.
3) And as for the texture of leaves, I am afraid I do not know the difference between coriaceous and waxy. Don’t all leathery leaves seem waxy too and vice versa?
4) Please also see the last attachment from K.M Matthew’s flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic in which Ochna obtusata var obtusata is clubbed with Ochna squarrosa L. In this case, please see the description of Ochna squarrosa L. from Bangalore Flora in which the leaf apex is listed as acute = sam
Attachments (4)

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This is why taxonomic revisions become necessary.

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I am unable to answer your Q.3. In college I/we didn’t learn taxonomy to genus or species level, our syllabus covered identification of a few family only.

If i google “coriaceous leaf” it gives these pictures.

“Waxy leaf” should be something like leaves of Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott.
KEY in Flora of Karnataka (you have attached) informs leaves of var. gamblei are glaucous. So you have now waxy-glaucous leaves just like the colocasia above. I think you can go with Ochna obtusata var. gamblei (Brandis) Kanis.

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You have to see the following reference and what they say about the delimitation; if not satisfied, then you have to see the original descriptions and types of all the entities:
Safui & M.P. Nayar in Hajra et al., Fl. India 4: 429. 1997.

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Does it mean we have only Ochna obtusata DC., without any var.?

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GRIN (updated in 2007) gives Ochna obtusata DC. var. gamblei (King ex Brandis) Kanis as a syn. of Ochna gamblei King ex Brandis

As per The Plant List Ver. 1.1, Ochna gamblei King ex Brandis is unresolved.
Various references under Ochna, also give it as an accepted name.

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There are two validly described species, O. obtusata and O. gamblei (Plant List shows that the identity of O. gamblei is unresolved but such lists in the website are compiled from secondary sources and therefore they often add misgivings). Kanis in Blumea 16: 34. 1968 reduced O. gamblei to a variety of O. obtusata Var. gamblei differs from var. obtusata mainly in the glaucous undersurface of the leaves, obtuse to rounded at apex. I think that this is the appropriate treatment as most of the available specimens can be assigned to the respective varieties using these characters leaving aside some intergredations.
In conclusion, I would like to assign your photographs to Ochna obtusata DC., var. gamblei (King ex Brandis) Kanis. (syn. O. beddomei Gamble).
The association of some misidentified specimens as O. squarrosa with O. obtusata is already clarified.

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Fwd: Photos of plant for identification : 7 posts by 6 authors. Attachments (24)
please find the attachments 

Can you help me identify this plant? It seems so familiar but seems to be out of syllabus for me. the plant’s stem is said to show a red coloration when broken.

any loganiaceae member…?

Ochna gamblei, I suppose.

me too support Ochna gamblei

Fwd: Small tree for identification :: Diospyros? :: MK APR-003 2016 : 10 posts by 5 authors. Attachments (7)