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Medium dioecious tree, 15 - 20 m high, deliquiscent, woody, perennial, partially deciduous, much branched, very dense with dark leaves and spreading branches
Bark grey, fissured with poisonous milky latex, lenticelate, lenticel prominent on young twigs and also present in mature trunk base; mature trunk base with gall like tumerous growth
Roots generally without any aerial growth, but very often superficial spreading horizontal roots are exposed due to water erosion during tidal flashing
Leaves, simple, alternate, spirally arranged, somewhat cluster to the end of the erect shoot, exstipulate, cauline, petiolate
Petiole, round, cauline, green, reddish occasionally on maturity.
Lamina ovate elliptic, incospicuously notched with a minute gland in the notch of young leaves; the glands usually circular often associated with additional outgrowth, like the marginal glands.
Male inflorescence catkin, pendulous or erect
Male flower bracteate, sessile, monochlamydous, dioecious, zygomorphic, cyclic, pendulous
Male perianth -Tepals 3, polytepalous. valvate, inferior, irregular, ovate, acute, yellow, herbaceous, small, persistent.
Stamens 3, free, fertile, superior, filament 1.2 cm in length. glabrous, round, anther bilobed, basifixed, extrorse, exerted, dehiscent longitudinally.
Female inflorescence mixed cyme
Female flower bracteate, bracts glandular, sessile, with a pair of bracteoles, round glabrous, achlamydous, dioecious, zygomorphic, valvate, superior, ovoid. 3-lobed
Female perianth - tepals 3, polytepalous, inferior, valvate, tepal ovate, green, glabrous, acute, herbaceous, small, persistent, zygomorphic
Carpels 3, syncarpous, superior, ovary ovoid, 3 chambered, basal placentation, one ovule in each chamber
Fruit 3 lobed, schizocarp (fruit like combined 3 balls) about 0.6 cm in diam., dehiscing into 3 coccii to release the solitary seeds. The pricarp green, some what leathery but not fleshy.
Economic Importance : Milky latex is very poisonous; wood is soft and largely used for packing boxes; paper pulp, match-box and splints of matches.
