Cassine paniculata

Systematic Classification:

Division   : Angiospermae
Class      : Dicotyledons
Order      : Celastrales
Family     : Celastraceae
Genus      : Cassine 
Species    : paniculata

Common Name:

Thannimaram

General Information:

Trees, to 20 m high; bark grey, smooth; blaze red; exudation watery; branchlets slender, terete. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; stipules minute, cauducous; petiole 8-15 mm, slender, grooved above, glabrous; lamina 7-9 x 2.5-4 cm, elliptic-oblong, obovate, oblanceolate, lanceolate or ovate lanceolate, base acute or cuneate, apex acute or obtusely-acuminate, margin crenate, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, faint. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, 1 cm across, in axillary stout dichasial corymbose cymes; calyx 5-lobed, lobes unequal, imbricate; petals 5, obovate, spreading; stamens 5, inserted into the margin of the disc; filaments slender at length recurved; anthers subglobose; disc thick, fleshy, margin sinuate; ovary immersed in the disc, conical, 2-5-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style short; stigma small. Fruit a drupe, 2.5 x 1.5 cm, globose to ellipsoid, apiculate; seed one, erect.