Maesa indica (Roxb.) A. DC.

The only mention of this species in our area is given by Lambert (Ind. For. Bull. no. 80:21.1933) from Kashmir. We have not seen herbarium material of it and the record requires confirmation. It may also be cultivated in our area. It has soft, brownish wood which is used as fuel. Fruit and bark are said to be used in poisoning fish, and leaves are used for making curry in some parts of India (Cooke, l.c.; Talbot, l.c.).

Large, evergreen, glabrous shrub, with a thin, lenticellate bark. Leaves ovate-oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, 7.5-15 (-17.5) cm long, 3-7 cm broad, serrate or dentate, acute to acuminate, base rounded to narrowed; petiole 1-2.5 cm long. Flowers small, 4-5 mm across, white, usually in branched, axillary racemes, shorter than leaves. Calyx campanulate. Corolla lobes ovate, obtuse, rotate, minutely dentate at margins. Berry 5-7 mm across, globose, whitish, surrounded by persistent calyx.

Shrubs 1-3 m tall, scandent, glandular granulose, early glabrescent. Branchlets angular to obtusely ridged, pellucid punctate-lineate, striate, with dense lenticels; pith solid. Petiole slightly canaliculate, 1-1.8 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate to oblong, 8-17(-21) × 5-9(-11) cm, papery, punctate-lineate, base obtuse or subrounded, margin serrate-dentate or -denticulate, teeth not callose, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences axillary or subterminal, racemose or paniculate, 3-5 cm, glabrescent or glandular granulose; bracteoles broadly ovate, obtuse to rounded apically. Flowers white or light yellow-green, ca. 2 mm. Pedicel 1-2 mm, glandular granulose. Calyx lobes broadly ovate, pellucid punctate, margin entire, sparsely ciliate, apex obtuse to rounded. Corolla campanulate, orange punctate-lineate; lobes broadly ovate, as long as or longer than tube, margin subundulate, apex acute. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube, included; filaments as long as or longer than anthers; anthers rounded. Pistil included. Style short; stigma lobed. Fruit globose or subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diam., with longitudinal ribs; persistent calyx lobes closed at fruit apex. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Nov.

Distribution: Native of the lower Himalayas, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

S Yunnan [India, Vietnam]

Fl. Per.: Usually Jan.-April.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, hillsides, streambanks, damp places; 500-2000 m.

Baeobotrys indica Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. 2: 230. 1824.