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Notched-Leaf Spike Thorn
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Notched-Leaf Spike Thorn
P Native Photo: Vijayasankar Raman
Common name: Notched-Leaf Spike Thorn
Botanical name: Gymnosporia emarginata    Family: Celastraceae (Spike-thorn family)
Synonyms: Catha emarginata, Celastrus emarginatus, Maytenus emarginata

Notched-Leaf Spike Thorn is a small shrub, 1-3 m tall; branches gray-brown, shallowly longitudinally fluted, armed. Leaf-stalks are sturdy, 3-5 mm; leaf blade obovate, 3.5-5 × 1.7-3.3 cm, leathery, base wedge-shaped, margin remotely rounded toothed, sometimes glandular spotted in sinus of teeth, tip rounded to notched, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, quite tenuous. Flowers are borne in cymes in leaf-axils, 1 or 2 × branched; flower-cluster-stalk 1-1.5 cm. Flowers are white; sepals triangular; petals obovate-oblong or oblong, entire, blunt. Stamens are inserted below on disk margin; anther broadly ovoid. Capsule is almost obovoid, 3-celled, 7-8 mm in diameter, splitting into 3 broadly rounded valves, about 5 mm. Seeds are ellipsoid, red, about 3 mm, with small aril at base. Notched-Leaf Spike Thorn

Identification credit: Robert H. Archer, Santosh Yadav Photographed in Tamil Nadu.

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