Ixora finlaysoniana - Fragrant Ixora

Fragrant Ixora is a shrub or small trees to 8 m tall. White flowers with 4 petals are born in corymbs 5-13 cm wide, open, stalkless or nearly so; flower-cluster-stalk up to 2 cm long; bracts 0.8-1.3 cm long, linear-lanceshaped, lower most bract 2.3-3.3 x 0.7-1.8 cm, leaf-like. Flowers are white or pale green, faintly scented, central flowers of the trichasia stalkless and ebracteolate, others stalked, bracteolate; flower-stalk 1-2.5 mm long. Sepal-tube is 1.5-2.5 mm long, velvet-hairy or hairless; sepals 3-12 mm long, lanceshaped or oblong, pointed. Flower-tube is 1.5-3.5 cm long, hairless; petals 5-10 x 2-5 mm, ovate-oblong, blunt; filaments 1-2 mm long, hairless; anthers 2.5-5 mm long; style 1.7-3.7 cm long, hairless; stigmatic arms 1.5-2 mm long; buds greenish brown. Leaves are oppositely arranged, 7-23 x 3-9 cm, elliptic, oblong, obovate, oblong-inverted-lanceshaped, ovate or elliptic-ovate, tip blunt, pointed, tapering, retuse or apiculate, base pointed, smooth, leathery, hairless on both the surfaces; lateral nerves 10-12 pairs; leaf-stalk 4-17 mm long, hairless. Fruit is 7-10 x 6-10 mm, spherical, glossy, black or reddish, blue at maturity. Fragrant Ixora is found in NE India, China, Indochina, Philippines, Thailand, at altitudes of 100-1100 m. It is cultivated worldwide.