• Family : ANACARDIACEAE
  (Cashew Or Mango Or Sumac Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : AAM FAMILY (आम फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : ANACARDIACEAE
• Basionym : Semecarpus grahamii Wight
• Synonym(s) : Holigarna wightii N.P.Balakr.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Holigarna grahamii (Wight) Kurz
• Vernacular name : Bipti, Balwuli, Cheru, Nai-cheru, Vellacheru (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Evergreen forests
• Comments / notes : At elevations 200-850 m.
• Key identification features : A large-sized evergreen tree growing up to 16 m tall with tomentose young branches. Leaves simple and large with obovate-elliptic lamina up to 40 cm long and 18 cm broad, acuminate at apex, tomentose beneath, with about 22-30 pairs of main nerves. Petiole is up to 4 cm long usually with 2 pairs of spurs. Inflorescence is a panicle with brown pubescence. Flowers are polygamous. Calyx toothed and accrescent. Petals are white and united below and hairy within. Male flowers with 5 stamens and obscure disk. Ovary is inferior with 3 styles and capitate stigma. Fruit is a drupe.
• Flower, Fruit : October-May
• Collection Nos : KFP 5384, CJS 12844
• Distribution :
  • Karnataka : Belagavi district, Chikkamagaluru district, Dakshina Kannada district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, Shivamogga district
  • Kerala : Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
  • Maharashtra : Pune district
  • Tamil Nadu : Kanyakumari district
• Native : India
• Endemism : Western Ghats
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka; Saldanha, C.J. (1996). Flora of Karnataka vol. 2. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co, New Delhi; Balakrishna Gowda & A.N. Sringesh 2004 – Sringeri (checklist unpublished); Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Navendu Page (2017). Endemic woody plants of the Western Ghats.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Holigarna grahamii. Downloaded on 2 April 2025.

Botanical Description

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