Scientific Name: Diospyros ebenum J.Koenig ex Retz. 

Synonyms: Diospyros assimilis Bedd., Diospyros ebenaster Retz.

Unique ID: 66

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: Gamopetalae

Series: Heteromerae

Order: Ericales

Family: Ebenaceae

Common Names

English – Ceylon ebeny tree, Ebony

Malayalam – എബോണി

Tamil –  Vellathovarai, Velleithuvarai

Description: Habit:Trees up to 12 m tall; Trunk & Bark: Bark black, smooth; Branches and Branchlets: Branchlets terete, glabrous; Leaves: Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; petiole 0.3-0.8 cm long, glabrous, subterete; lamina 5-13.5 x 1.5-4.5 cm, elliptic or oblong, apex acuminate with blunt tip or obtuse, base acute to rounded, margin entire, midrib flat; secondary nerves 5-8 pairs, lower most pairs close and acute in angle; tertiary nerves reticulate: Inflorescence / Flower:Flowers unisexual; male flowers subsessile, in 3-flowered, axillary cymes, cream; female flowers subsessile, axillary, solitary, pedicels 0.2 cm long; Fruit and Seed:

Berry, globose or subglobose, to 2 cm across, apiculate, with fruiting calyx lobes accrescent, reflexed; usually 4 seeded, rarely 2-8.

Habitat: Canopy trees in evergreen forests, up to 800 m; Plains to Mid Altitude, Dry Deciduous to Moist Deciduous Forests

Distribution:  Peninsular India and Sri Lanka; in the Western Ghats- leeward side of the South Sahyadri and Nilgiris.

Uses:  data deficient