Ziziphus glabrata

Flora of Eastern Ghats: Hill Ranges of South East India, Volume 1 By Thammineni Pullaiah, D. Muralidhara Rao, K. Sri Ramamurthy (Keys- glabrata, horrida, mauritiana, nummularia, oenoplia, rugosa & xylopyrus & Description- 2002)

Trees, to 10 m high; bark dark brown, blaze orange-red; branchlets tomentose. Leaves simple, alternate; stipule filiform, cauducous; petiole 3-5 mm, stout, pubescent; lamina 1.5-10.3 x 1.5-5 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, elliptic-orbicular, or ovate, base obtuse, round or asymmetrical, apex obtuse and retuse, margin crenulate, the crenations tipped with callous points, glabrous, shining above, tomentose on nerves beneath, coriaceous; 3-ribbed from the base, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, 7 mm across, in axillary, peduncled cymes; bracteoles subulate; pedicel to 2 m; calyx tube 1.5-2 mm; lobes 5, pubescent outside, triangular, keeled within, deflexed, valvate; petals 5, 1.5 mm, obovate; disc 10 lobed, entire; stamens 5, opposite to and enclosed in the petals and usually longer than them; filaments flattened; ovary embedded in the disc, 2-celled, ovule solitary; styles 2, connate upto the middle; stigma 2. Fruit a drupe, globose obovoid, to 6 mm across, 1-2-celled, yellow when ripe, rugose; seeds 1 or 2.

Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi)