Bark
Greyish-brown to brown, generally smooth on young branches; older bark becomes somewhat rough.
Memecylon sessile
Syn. Memecylon subcordatum
IUCN Red List
Not Evaluated
(NE)
Local name
- Stalkless Memecylon (English)
- Doddanekkare (Kannada)
- Kanyava (Tamil)
Tree type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Melastomataceae
4m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Leaves are 4.5 × 2.5 cm, ovate, bluntly tapering, stalkless or shortly stalked, greenish when dry; nerves 9 pairs.
Flower
Blue many-flowered cymes 1 cm across. Flower-cluster-stalks are short or absent; flower-stalks 2.5 mm long, slender; bracts fulvous-woolly. Flowers are 2.5 mm across; calyx shortly 4-toothed, puberulous outside.
Fruit / Seeds
A fleshy, globose berry, each fruit generally containing a single seed.
Did you know?
It lacks nectar; instead, its blue anthers provide tiny footholds for bees. By gripping them and vibrating their flight muscles, bees trigger buzz pollination, shaking pollen loose.
Distribution
SW. India, Sri Lanka.