FoI
Shining Eurya
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Shining Eurya
ative Photo: Anurag Sharma
Common name: Shining Eurya • Kannada: ಹುಲಿಯಾನಿ Huliyaani, ಹುಲುನಿ Huluni • Malayalam: Huluni, Mukkorone
Botanical name: Eurya nitida    Family: Theaceae (Tea family)
Synonyms: Eurya japonica subsp. nitida, Eurya japonica var. siamensis

Shining Eurya is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall. Bark is brown, smooth; blaze brown. Young branchlets are angular with two lateral ridges, hairless. Leaves are simple, alternate, carried on 0.3-1 cm long stalk. Leaves are 2.5-10 x 1.5-4 cm, elliptic to elliptic-oblanceolate, tip long-pointed with flat tip, base narrow to wedge-shaped, margin toothed, hairless, leathery, dark green and shining above, pale beneath. Midrib is slightly channelled above, secondary nerves up to 8 pairs, impressed above, tertiary nerves broadly net-veined. Flowers are unisexual, greenish-white, in axillary fascicles, nearly stalkless. Flower-stalks are 1-2.5 mm long, bracteoles 2 at the base of calyx, sepals 5, broadly ovate to circular, ciliate. Petals are 5, broadly oblong to circular, fused at base, imbricate. Stamens are 12-15, fused at base, adnate to the base of petals. Ovary is superior, globose, hairless, 3-celled, ovule many in each cell, styles 3, 1.5-2.5 mm long, united basely; stigmas 3-lobed. Berry is globose, purplish black when ripe; seeds many. Shining Eurya is found in Indomalaysia and China; in the Western Ghats in South and Central Sahyadris.

Identification credit: Udayan Punakkal Photographed in Thadiyandamol, Karnataka.

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