• Family : THEACEAE
  (Tea Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : CHAAY FAMILY (चाय फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : PENTAPHYLACACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Eurya japonica var. nitida (Korth.) Dyer
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Eurya nitida Korth.
• Vernacular name : Hulumi (Kannada); Arruttuvarai, Kooramar, Kattukarana, Kattu-theyila (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Margins of grasslands and shola forests
• Comments / notes : Resembles tea plant. Common in forests of Western Ghats
• Key identification features : A shrub or small tree. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, elliptic to obovate, serrate, acute at apex, glabrous. Flowers white, dioecious, axillary fascicles; bracteoles persistent. Sepals 5, broadly ovate, persistent. Petals 5, obovate. Stamens in male flowers 10-15. Fruit a globose berry, 3-4 mm across, with persistent style base
• Flower, Fruit : March-December
• Collection Nos : KFP 5399, KFP 9703
• Distribution :
  • Karnataka : Chikkamagaluru district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Tamil Nadu : Coimbatore district, Kanyakumari district, The Nilgiri district, Salem district, Tirunelveli district
• World Distribution : Indo-Malesia and China
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Cecil J. Saldanha, S. R. Ramesh (1984). Flora of Karnataka State vol. 1. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co, New Delhi; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1.
• 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=Eurya nitida. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)