Diospyros paniculata Dalzell

Systematic Classification:

Division	: Angiospermae
Class		: Dicotyledons
Family		: Ebenaceae	
Genus     	: Diospyros
Species	        : paniculata

Common Name:

Thuvara, Karumaram

General Information:

Trees grow up to 16 m tall. Bark black, smooth; blaze dull orange. Young branchlets terete, covered by black, sooty hairs. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.5-1.1 cm long, flat, glabrous; lamina 9-27 x 3.5-8 cm, usually narrow elliptic-oblong to lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate with blunt tip, base acute to rounded, margin entire, coriaceous with minute pellucid punctate beneath, strongly and closely reticulate on both surfaces; midrib raised above; secondary nerves 6-9 pairs. Flowers unisexual; male flowers in axillary paniculate cymes; female flowers axillary, solitary or 2-5 flowered cymes; calyx covered with black sooty hairs. Fruit and SeedBerry, ovoid covered with rusty and sooty hairs when young, later glabrous; calyx accrescent, foliaceous with folded lobes, black sooty hairs inside; seeds 4, smooth.

Economic Importance:

• The Diospyros paniculata Dalz (Ebenaceae) has been used in folk medicine to treat several ailments including burns, gonorrhea, biliousness, blood poisoning, rheumatism and ulcer.