Atalantia monophylla
(L.) DC., Prodr. 1: 535. 1824; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 511. 1875; Nicolson et al. in Regnum Veg. 119: 231. 1988. Limonia monophylla L., Mant. Pl. 237. 1775. Malnaregam malabarica Raf., Sylv. Tellur. 143. 1838 (as Malnarega) nom. rej. Atalantia floribunda Wight, Icon. Pl. Ind. Orient. 4: t. 1611. 1850. A. malabarica (Raf.) Tanaka in J. Indian Bot. Soc. 16: 233. 1937, nom. illegit.
Large ramous shrubs or medium-sized trees, 3 - 13 m high; branchlets woody, cylindric, usually with single, axillary, stout spine (up to 2 cm long), or occasionally unarmed, pubescent or densely hairy, soon becoming glabrous; bark grey, lenticellate. Leaves unifoliolate; stipuloid paraphylls at leaf axils awl-shaped; petioles up to 1 cm long; leaflet blades ovate to ovate-lanceolate or elliptic to elliptic-oblong, 2 - 13 x 1 - 6 cm, obtuse, emarginate at apex, broadly cuneate at base, entire along margins, dark areen and glossy above, pale green beneath, coriaceous, glabrous; secondary nerves 8 - 14 pairs, slender, faint above, prominent beneath, spreading, finely reticulate. Inflorescences axillary, racemose, corymbose or umbelliform, shorter or longer than leaves; peduncle slender, puberulous or glabrous; bracteoles subulate, ca 1.5 mm long, hairy, caducous. Pedicels more or less equal in length, slender, filiform, 8 - 15 mm long, puberulous or glabrous. Flowers ovoid or oblong in bud, widely opening, up to 2 cm across, scented. Calyx cupular, splitting irregularly into 2, or sometimes 3 or 4 irregular lobes at anthesis; lobes obtuse, 0.5 - 1.5 mm long, densely puberulent to glabrous, persistent. Petals 4 or 5, white, oblong-elliptic, rounded at apex, clawed below, ca 10 x 4 mm, midnerve prominent, glabrous. Stamens 8 or 10, alternately short and long, united into a tube almost 3/4 of their entire length, glabrous; anthers ovoid, ca 1 mm long, yellowish. Disk annular, obscurely 8- or 10-lobed, ca 1 mm high, ca 15 mm, fleshy, whitish. Ovary ovoid, 2.5 - 4 x 1 - 1.5 mm, smooth, 3- or 4-locular; each locule with 1- or 2-ovules; style as long as ovary, cylindric, ending in an irregularly 3- or 4-lobed capitate stigma, caducous. Berries globose, 2 - 5 mm, greenish-yellow, 3- or 4-locular; each locule filled with many, sessile, cuneate, distally tapering pulp-vesicles; rind densely glandular; seeds usually one per berry.
KEY TO THE VARIETIES
| 1a. Leaflet blades 2 - 8 x 1 - 4 cm; fruits up to 2 cm across | 1.2. monophylla |
| b. Leaflet blades 6 - 15 x 3 - 6 cm; fruits 3 - 5 cm across | 1.1. monophylla |
