Mahonia leschenaultii- Manjanathi, Maramanjal, Mullukadambu, Mullumanjanathi-plant

Description

Evergreen trees, 4-7 m tall; bark light brown, corky, vertically and horizontally fissured; blaze sulphur yellow. Leaves compound, imparipinnate, verticelled at the tips of branches; rachis 17-33 cm, slender, glabrous, base sheathing with 2 subulate stipules; leaflets 7-17, opposite, sessile; lamina 3-9 x 1-5 cm, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-ovate; base obliquely truncate, rounded, subcordate or very obtuse; apex cuspidate; margin spinose, glabrous, rigid, coriaceous, shining above, pale beneath; 3-5 nerved from the base, raised beneath; secondary laterals 3-5 pairs, pinnate; intercostae reticulate, faint. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in racemes generally fascicled at the apices of stem, in umbel fashion, erect or oblique, often paniculate, 7.5-40 cm; pedicels 6-16 mm, with 2-3 appressed bracts; sepals 6, imbricate in 2 series; petals 6, imbricate in 2 series; nectaries distinct; stamens 6, free, anthers-cells opening by recurved valves; ovary single celled; ovules 5-6, basal, erect; style stout; stigma peltate. Fruit a berry, 8 mm across, broadly ellipsoid-globose, purple, pruinose, bitter, 3-5 seeded.