Species of plant
Celtis madagascariensis is a species of flowering plant endemic to Madagascar.
Description
Celtis madagascariensis is a small deciduous tree, growing 7 to 10 meters high. Its bark is smooth and whitish to grey. Its leaves are alternate, simple, and ovate-elliptic, 7 – 10 cm wide by 2.5 – 3 cm wide.[3]
Male and hermaphrodite flowers creamy with a tender glabrous pedicel, 3 to 5 mm long, with 5 glabrous sepals and 5 stamens. They are borne on axillary inflorescences, as long as or longer than the petiole, lower ones with only male flowers or with male flowers and 1 or 2 hermaphrodite flowers, and upper ones sometimes without male flowers and 2 to 5 hermaphrodite flowers. The fruit is a drupe, green becoming red or brown and broadly ellipsoid, c. 12 x 8 mm, bearing a single seed.[3]
Range and habitat
Celtis madagascariensis is widespread in northern, western and southwestern Madagascar.[1] It lives along forest margins,[3] up to 1,200 meters elevation.[1]
References