Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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Paramignya andamanica (King) Tanaka in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 75: 712. 1928; Swingle, Citrus Ind. 1: 275. 1967. P. armata (Thwaites) Oliver var. andamanica King in J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 62: 223. 1893; Parkinson, For. Fl. Andaman Isl. 108. 1923.


Climbing shrubs; stem woody, cylindric, armed with axillary, slightly recurved, sharp, glabrous or pubescent spines; branchlets puberulent, soon becoming glabrous; bark greenish, lenticellate. Leaves simple; pettoles 8 - 20 mm long, inarticulate, twisted, densely puberulent above or glabrous; leaf blades elliptic-oblong, rounded at base, subacute or acuminate at apex, entire along margins, 8 - 20 x 3 - 8 cm, dark green and glossy above, pale greenish beneath, sweet-scented when bruised, coriaceous, glandular-punctate; gland dots very numerous, closely set; secondary nerves 6 - 12 pairs, prominent, spreading, reticulate. Bracteoles 2, at base of pedicels, minute; pedicels slender, 15 - 35 mm long, glabrate. Flowers axillary, often in pairs, sometimes solitary, cylindric in bud, 12 - 20 x 30 mm, fragrant. Calyx cupular; sepals 5, obtuse, 1 - 2 mm long, pubescent outside, glabrous inside, ciliolate along margins. Petals 5, linear-oblong, obtuse, 12 - 20 x 3 - 4 mm, glandular, glabrous, white. Stamens 10, shorter than petals; filaments linear, subulate above to 17 mm long, woolly below for 3/4 of their length glabrous above; anthers linear-oblong, ca 5 mm long. Ovary borne on a cylindric gynophore, ovoid, slender, ca 2 mm long, glandular, glabrous; style slender, 10 - 15 mm long, glandular, glabrous; stigma capitate. Berries subglobose or pyriform, obscurely 2-lobed, ca 2 cm across, glandular, yellowish when ripe with remnants of the eccentrically placed style; seeds several, flat, compressed, large.

Fl. May - Aug.; Fr. Nov.- April.

Distrib. India: Coastal and inland forests of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, up to 80 m.

Vietnam, Sumatra, Sumbawa and Borneo.

Notes. P. andamanica is the only species of this genus showing largest dimensions regarding the size of leaves, spines, flowers etc.





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