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Indian ironwood
Memecylon umbellatum
Memecylon umbellatum, commonly known as ironwood, anjani (Marathi) or alli (Telugu), is a small tree found in India, the Andaman islands and the coastal region of the Deccan. It is also found in Sri Lanka, where it is called blue mist, kora-kaha (Sinhala language) and kurrikaya (Tamil language). The leaves contain a yellow dye, a glucoside, which is used for dyeing the robes of Buddhist monks and for colouring reed mats (Dumbara mats). Medicinally, the leaves are said to have anti-diarrhoeal properties. Historically, this plant was burnt as fuel in the production of Wootz steel.
From the article Memecylon umbellatum on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
It is a large shrub or small tree. Its bark and branches are very hard. That is why it is called Ironwood (or possibly because of its important historical role in the production of Wootz steel). Leaves are simple, opposite type. Leaves contain glucose. Flowers are blue coloured and produced in cymose umbels. The fruit is round berry bluish-black in colour. Flowering time is February to March.
== References ==
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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Every page naming Memecylon umbellatum in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 431307.