Meliosma pinnata (Roxb.) Walp. ssp. barbulata (Cufod.) Beus.

Trees, to 18 m high, bark 10-15 mm thick, surface greyish-brown, mottled with white; blaze creamy pink, turning to orange yellow, interspersed with lighter rays, inner bark succulent, innermost layers fibrous; branchlets brown villous, prominently lenticellate. Leaves imparipinnate, pinnate, alternate, estipulate; rachis 6.5-18 cm long, stout, rusty pubescent; leaflets 9-15, opposite or subopposite; petiolule 4-10 mm, slender, rusty tomentose; lamina 3.5-12.5 x 1.5-4 cm, oblong, oblong-lanceolate, elliptic-oblong or elliptic-ovate; base obtuse, round or oblique, apex acuminate or acute, margin entire, glabrous above, rusty tomentose beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 3-15 pairs, pinnate, ascending, prominent, intercostae reticulate, domatia often present. Flowers bisexual, yellowish-white in large terminal and axillary tomentose panicles; bracteoles sepaloid; sepals 5, basally connate, triangular, ciliate; petals 3+2; inner ones 2-fid; outer 3 suborbicular, unequal; fertile stamens 2; filaments 1.5 mm; staminodes 3, scaly, to 1 mm; ovary superior, tomentose, 2-celled, ovule 2 in each cell; style terminal, stigma simple. Fruit a drupe, 5-6 mm across, globose.

Habit: Small tree

Karnataka: Chikmagalur, Coorg, Hassan, N. Kanara, S. Kanara Kerala: Idukki, Kannur, Kollam, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur Tamil Nadu: Coimbatore, Dindigul, Kanniyakumari, Namakkal, Nilgiri, Salem, Theni, Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar

Indomalaysia and China; in the Western Ghats- South Sahyadri and Central Sahyadri (Palakkad, Nilgiri and Bababudangiri hills).