Chrysophyllum cainito

 

Family: SAPOTACEAE

English name(s): Caimito, Star Apple, Satin leaf, West Indian Star Apple

Habit: Tree

Flowering & Fruiting: July-September

Habitat: Cultivated, also runs wild

Description: Trees, to 25 m high; bark greyish to dark brownish-black, vertically shallowly cracked; young parts golden-ferrugineous silky. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, 5.5-14 × 2.5-7 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, ovate or elliptic-ovate, apex obtusely acuminate or acuminate, base acute or obtuse, margin entire, glabrous and shining above, golden-ferrugineous silky beneath, coriaceous; petiole 8-20 mm long, stout, grooved above, silky pubescent; lateral nerves 10-26 pairs, parallel, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, white, 5-20 in axillary fascicles; pedicels 0.5-1.5 cm long, silky. Sepals 5, 1.5-2 mm long, coppery, ovate, silky outside. Corolla 3.5-4 mm long; tube equalling the length of the lobes; lobes 5, ovate, silky outside. Stamens 5, included; anthers extrorse. Ovary superior, silky, ovules many; style included. Fruit a berry, 2.5-3 x 1 cm, white to purplish-black; broadly ellipsoid to globose; seeds 3-10, laterally compressed.

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക