Bark
Bark is brownish, smooth, blaze cream.
Flacourtia montana
IUCN Red List
Near Threatened
(NT)
Local name
- Mountain Sweet Thorn (English)
- Attak (Gujarati)
Tree type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Salicaceae
8m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Alternately arranged leaves are narrow elliptic- oblong, with stalks 0.4-0.9 cm long. Leaves are velvety, 7-18 cm long, 4-8 cm wide, with a tapering tip, wedge-shaped base, and toothed margin.
Flower
Flowers are small, yellowish, spherical hairy balls. Male and and female flowers on separate trees, borne in cymes in leaf axils.
Fruit / Seeds
Berry is red when ripe, round and fleshy, 1-seeded.
Did you know?
The tree trunk features a dramatic defense mechanism. The base of the trunk is heavily armed with thick, sharp, branched thorns up to 5 cm long to deter ground herbivores. However, as the tree grows taller, the branches higher up often lose their armor completely and become entirely unarmed.
Distribution
W. & S. India