Cordia diffusa - Kovai Manjack

Kovai Manjack is a straggling shrub with brownish-gray branchlets, up to 3 m tall. Leaves are simple, nearly opposite, obovate or oblong-inverted-lanceshaped, 1.8-4.5 x 0.6-2 cm, apically blunt, basally blunt or flat, margin entire, fulvousvelvet-hairy above, scabrous below; leaf-stalk up to 0.5 cm long. Flowers are yellowish white, at branch-ends, in few-flowered small cymes; flower-cluster-stalk up to 2 cm long; flower-stalks up to 4 mm long, sepal-cup tubular, sepals 5, triangular, pointed, erect, rusty-velvet-hairy outside. Flowers are yellowish white, tubular or pinwheel-shaped, petals 5, broadly oblong, pointed, recurved; stamens 5, filaments thread-like, anthers oblong; ovary spherical, style with 4 arms, arms curled, protruding, stigmas capitate. Fruit is green when young, bright ornage when ripe, ellipsoid to ovoid, often beaked with style-base, pulp fleshy, seated on cup-shaped, ribbed sepal-cup. Kovai Manjack is only found in hilly deciduous forests in Chingleput and Coimbatore districts in Tamil Nadu. Flowering: February-June.