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Kurnool Tritaxis
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Kurnool Tritaxis
P Native Photo: Raja Kullayiswamy
Common name: Kurnool Tritaxis • Telugu: Erra-tandra
Botanical name: Tritaxis kurnoolensis    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Dimorphocalyx kurnoolensis

Kurnool Tritaxis is a tree, up to 3 m tall, with branchlets velvet-hairy. It is named for Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh where it is predominantly found. Leaves are obovate to elliptic-inverted-lanceshaped, narrowed or wedge-shaped at base, entire to faintly wavy along margins, somewhat pointed to blunt or rounded at tip, 5-19 x 2-6 cm, hairless; lateral nerves 7-12 pairs; leaf-stalks 1-2 cm long; stipules triangular. Male flowers arise in branch-end stalked cymes; bracts lanceshaped, 3-4 x 1-1.2 mm; flowers nearly stalkless; sepal-cup appressed hairy outside; sepals nearly round, about 1 x 1.3 mm. Petals are oblong, often notched, about 8 x 2.5 mm, disc glands free, ovate-oblate, about 0.6 x 0.8 mm, hairy at top; stamens have filaments about 1.8 mm long; anthers oblong, about 1.2 mm across; the inner stamens monadelphous, at the tip of about 7 mm long staminal column, trifid at tip; anthers round, about 0.8 mm across. Female flowers are few, in short stalked racemes; flowers 5-8 mm across; flower-stalks about 2 mm long; sepal-cup shortly 5-lobed; sepals nearly round, about 2 x 2.5 mm; petals oblong; disc glands as in male; ovary about 4 x 3 mm, appressed hairy, styles fused at base, 2-fid above. Fruits are almost spherical, depressed, deeply furrowed between cocci, 1.0-1.3 x 1.3-1.7 cm; fruiting sepals about 5 x 3 mm. Kurnool Tritaxis is endemic to Andhra Pradesh. Flowering: November-March.

Identification credit: Raja Kullayiswamy Photographed at Owk dam, Andhra Pradesh.

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