Diospyros melanoxylon - Coromandel Ebony

Coromandel Ebony is a medium-sized tree or shrub up to 25 m, and 1.9 m girth. The bark is pelican in colour, peeling in rectangular scales, which is an identifying feature. The species name melanoxylon comes from the Greek melas (black) and xylon (wood). The primary root is long, thick and fleshy at first, afterwards woody, greyish, often swollen in upper part near ground level. The roots form vertical loops in sucker-generated plants. Elliptic-oblong leaves can be opposite or alternate, leathery, up to 35 cm long, velvety on both sides when young, becoming smooth above when fully grown. Leaves are used for making beedis. Male flowers are mauve in colour, tetramerous to sextamerous, 1-1.5 cm long, sessile or nearly sessile in short peduncles, mostly 3-flowered. Female flowers mauve, mostly extra-axillary or sometimes solitary, axillary generally 2, opposite each other, larger than the male flowers. Fruits olive green, ovoid or globose 3-4 cm across; 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, or 8-seeded berries. Pulp yellow, soft and sweet. Seeds compressed, oblong, shiny, often banded.