Manilkara hexandra (Roxb.) Dubard

In Pakistan it is cultivated in gardens in Karachi for its very sweet edible fruits (Nasir, H.M., Decorative Fl. Kar. 31. 1982).

Seeds contain 25% edible oil and are of medicinal value.

Tree, 3-4 m high with deeply furrowed bark. Leaves obovate-broadly obovate, oblong or elliptic 5-12 x 3.5-5 cm, rounded or emarginate at apex, subacute at base, coriaceous, glabrous, midrib prominent beneath, lateral nerves not prominent; petiole 1 cm or more long. Flowers yellowish, axillary, solitary or fascicled. Calyx 6-lobed, pubescent. Corolla 18-lobed, tube short. Stamens 6, with an equal number of staminodes. Ovary 12-celled, hairy. Fruit berry, ovoid, red, 1-seeded, c. 1.5 x 1 cm.

Shrubs or trees, 3--12 m tall. Bark gray. Branchlets glabrous. Leaves alternate, often closely clustered at end of branchlets, with conspicuous scars; petiole 0.8--2 cm; leaf blade obovate to obovate-elliptic, 5--10 X 3--7 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, apex retuse, midrib raised abaxially, lateral veins slender and parallel, veinlets dense. Flowers axillary, fascicled. Pedicel thick, 1--1.8 cm. Sepals ovate-triangular, 3--4 mm, outside yellowish gray tomentose. Corolla white or light yellow, ca. 4 mm; lobes oblong, ca. 3 mm. Stamens ca. 5 mm; staminodes 2-parted, lobes linear, ca. 3 mm. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, 6-locular, tomentose. Berry obovoid-oblong to ellipsoid, 1--1.5 cm, 1- or 2-seeded. Seeds ca. 8--10 mm. Fl. Aug-Dec.

Distribution: Sri Lanka, India.

Fl. Per.: December-February.

Thickets; low elevations. S Guangxi, SW Hainan [Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam]

Mimusops hexandra Roxburgh, Pl. Coromamdel 1: 16. 1795.