Miliusa wightiana - Western Ghats Miliusa

Western Ghats Miliusa is a small evergreen tree, 10-15 m tall, branches hairless. Leaves are narrowly oblong to lanceshaped, slightly wedge-shaped at base, abruptly bluntly tapering at tip, 4.5-9.5 x 1.5-5 cm, leathery, hairless, somewhat velvet-hairy on nerves beneath; leaf-stalks about 2 mm long, hairless. Flowers are pink, bisexual, borne singly in leaf-axils, on flower-stalks 1.5-2.5 cm long, hairless. Bracts are 3, basal and one a little above the base. Sepals are 3, minute, reflexed. Petals are 6 (3 + 3); outer petals like the sepals; inner ones ovate-oblong, wedge-shaped at base, somewhat pointed at tip, 10-15 x 6-8 mm, fused at base, veined, finely velvet-hairy outside. Stamens are many, in a few series, about 1 mm long, much broader; connectives apiculate at top. Fruits are clustered 1-2 seeded berries, 1.2 cm long, oblong to spherical with elongated stalk. Western Ghats Miliusa is endemic to the evergreen forests of Western Ghats, in Kranataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Flowering: January-March.