Actinodaphne malabarica Balakr.

Habit: Tree

Trees, to 18 m high, bark dark grey, smooth, lenticellate; blaze dull yellow with brownish streaks; young shoots densely fulvous tomentose. Leaves simple, subverticillate, opposite or subopposite, estipulate; petiole 7-20 mm long, stout, tomentose; lamina 7-25 x 2.5-6 cm, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, base acute or attenuate, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, villous beneath, chartaceous; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, pinnate, slender, prominent, ascending about 400-500 from midrib, indistinct towards the margin; intercostae scalariform, obscure. Flowers unisexual, yellowish; male flowers: in densely tomentose racemes of 2.5 cm long; bracts 10 x 7 mm, orbicular, densely silky brown tomentose; tepals 6, subequal, oblong, obtuse, silky brown tomentose; stamens 9, in 3 rows; filaments 2-galndular, densely hispid; anthers 4-celled, oblong, introrse; female flowers: staminodes 9, in 3 rows, those of row 3 with 2-glands; ovary half inferior, ovoid, attenuate into the style; stigma dilated. Fruit a berry 7-10 mm across, globose, seated in a perianth cup, red.

Karnataka: Hassan, Shimoga Kerala: Idukki, Kannur, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode,Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Wynad Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Kanniyakumari, Dindigul, Nilgiri, Tirunelveli

Endemic to the Western Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.