Micromelum integerrimum (Roxb. ex DC.) M. Roemer, Syn. Mon. Hesper. 1: 47. 1846 (as M. integerrimum Wight & Arn., 1834, nom. illegit.). Bergera integerrima Roxb. (Rort. Bengal. 32. 1814, nom. nud.) ex DC., Prodr. 1: 537. 1824. Micromelum pubescens Blume var. integerrima (Roxb. ex DC.) Oliver in J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 5. Suppl. 2: 40. 1861. M. pubescens auct. non Blume 1825: Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 501. 1875, p.p., excl. vars. 1 & 3.

Small shrubs or trees, 2 - 10 m high, young parts often finely pubescent; branchlets cylindric, puberulous to glabrescent; bark grey, rather rough, lenticellate. Leaves up to 50 cm long; petioles and rachises cylindric, ca 4 mm across, densely puberulent to glabrescent; leaflets 7 - 15, occasionally also 3-foliolate on the same branchlet, alternate, subopposite, ovate-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate to broadly ovate, cuneate at base, oblique, caudate-acuminate at apex, acumen up to 25 mm long, bluntish at tip, wavy, entire or nearly so along margins, 6.5 - 20.0 x 2.5 - 7.5 cm, dark greenish above, pale green beneath, chartaceous to coriaceous, minutely pubescent or glabrous; secondary nerves 5 - 15 pairs, faint and impressed above, prominently raised beneath, arising at angles 45 - 55° with the midnerve, tertiaries indistinct. Inflorescences terminal or sometimes from the uppermost leaf axils, corymbose, paniculate-cymes, up to 25 cm long, puberulent to finely pubescent. Flowers subglobose or cylindric in buds, ca 8 mm long; pedicels 2 - 4 mm long, densely puberulent. Calyx 5-toothed; sepals persistent, triangular, acute, ca 0.5 mm long, glandular, adpressedly pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially. Petals 5, valvate or slightly overlapping, elliptic or linear oblong, obtuse or deflex-acuminate at apex, ca 7 mm long, white, sparsely hairy or glabrous adaxially. Stamens 10; filaments linear, subulate above, 4 - 6 mm long, glabrous; anthers ellipsoid, ca 1.5 mm long. Disk annular, ca 1.5 mm broad, fleshy, glabrous. Ovary subglobose or ellipsoid, ca 2 mm long, ca 1 m.m broad, obscurely and longitudinally furrowed, more or less hairy, hairs grey or brownish, bone on a narrow, columnar, fleshy gynophore (ca 1 mm long), 5-locular, each locule with one pendulous ovule; style cylindric, as long as or sometimes slightly exceeding the length of ovary, articulate, glabrous; stigma ca 1 mm long and broad, capitate. Berries ellipsoid or ovoid-oblong, ca 15 x 7 mm, orange or reddish when ripe, pellucid-punctate, obtuse at both ends, shortly stipitate below, mamillate above, epicarp adherent, endocarp fleshy, mucilaginous, white; seeds 2 or 3, green, slightly compressed, bean-shaped.

Fl. Oct.- Feb.; Fr. Ripening in April - May.

Distrib. India: Evergreen or semievergreen forests, from sea level to 1500 m altitude. Bihar, W. Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and the Andaman Islands.

Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and S. China.

Notes. Stem bark and root are used in the treatment of tuberculosis.

M. integerrimum is a variable species as regards to the vestiture of mature plant parts, especially leaves and leaflets. Some of the earlier collections of this species in Sikkim (e.g. Rhomoo 244, Craib 549, Smith 263 - all in CAL) represent the true glabrescent forms while specimens from Darjeeling Himalayas and Bangladesh (e.g. S.K. Mukherjee 4497 (Darjeeling - CAL) & G. Watt 12442, 12445 (Bengladesh-CAL) have shortly or finely pubescent leaves. J.D. Hooker (1875) described berries in this species as glabrous; but it was observed, at least once, that they could be slightly hairy or pubescent as seen in the specimen, Modder 63 - CAL).