Robust Helicia is a small tree, 6-11 m tall, bark pale
brown; branches hairless. Flowers are borne in short racemes laterally
or in leaf-axils. Rachis is 6-8 cm long. Bracts are minute, linear,
fringed with hairs on margins. Flowers are dense, usually 2 or more for
each bract; flower-stalks of pairs fused, 0.4-0.5 cm long. Flower tube
is slender, 1-1.3 cm long, splitting into 4-lobes in full length and
curled back. Stamens are 4, attached with a short filament to the blade
of the lobe; anthers about 0.2 cm long, linear; connective produced to
a short appendage. Ovary is 1-celled, ovules 2; style as long as
perianth tube; stigma linear, thick. Leaves are 4-6 x 2-3.5 cm,
elliptic-inverted-lanceshaped, slightly tapering at tip, narrowed at
base, toothed on margins, sparsely hairy above, hairless below; veins
ending in thickened glands at dentations; leaf-stalks 0.8-1 cm long,
thickened at base. Drupe is spherical, 1-1.5 cm diam., green, 1-2
seeded. Robust Helicia is found in NE India, Bhutan and Vietnam. It is
also found in Western Ghats.
Flowering: September-February.
Identification credit: Nidhan Singh
Photographed in Cherrapunji, Meghalaya.
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The flower labeled Robust Helicia is ...