Goonja

The species is leafless when in flower. Fairly common in deciduous forests up to 1219 m.

A small to medium sized tree, 10 m or more tall. Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets 5-9(-11) in number, opposite, subsessile, 50-140 x 22-50 mm, ovate to ovate-oblong, glabrous above, rusty tomentose on the under surface. Bracts ± 1.2 mm long, broad ovate. Flowers unisexual, greenish, the male in compound and female in simple racemes. Calyx lobes 4, ± 1.2 mm long, broad ovate„obtuse, ciliate. Petals 4, 2 mm long, oblong, green yellow. Male flowers: Stamens 8, as long as the petals and-inserted below the annular disk; anthers ± 1.2 mm long, basifixed; filaments glabrous. Female flowers: Ovary oblong; styles 3-4, stout. Drupe 10-12 mm long, oblong, compressed, red.

Deciduous trees, 5-10 m tall; branchlets densely covered with ferruginous stellate hairs. Petiole and rachis terete, sparsely covered with ferruginous stellate hairs; leaf blade 10-33 cm, imparipinnately compound, with (5-)7-9(-11) leaflets; leaflet petiolule 1-3 mm, with ferruginous stellate hairs; leaflet blade membranous or papery, ovate or oblong-ovate, 5.5-9 × 2.5-4 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially mixed pubescent and ferruginous stellate-haired, base oblique, subrounded, margin entire, apex long acuminate or caudate-acuminate, lateral veins 6-10 pairs, slightly impressed adaxially, prominent abaxially. Inflorescences paniculate or racemose, appearing before leaves, gathered at branch apices or on short shoots in leaf-scar axils, male inflorescence 15-30 cm, female inflorescence smaller; subtending bracts 1-2 mm with ciliate margins. Flowers small, yellow or purplish. Calyx lobes ovate to broadly ovate, ca. 1 mm, glabrous with ciliate margins. Petals ovate-oblong, ca. 2.7 × 1.5 mm, recurved at anthesis. Stamens 8, subequal to petals in male flower, reduced and sterile in female flower. Disk annular. Ovary glabrous, ovoid, 4-locular, usually only 1 ovule fertile. Drupe ovoid to slightly reniform, purplish red at maturity, 6-10 × 0.5-1 mm. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr-Jun.

Himalaya (Swat to Bhutan), Assam, Burma, Indo-China, Ceylon, Andaman Isl., China, Malaysia.

Distribution: The sub-himalayan tract to the Indus, Burma, Assam, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands.

SW Guangdong, S Guangxi, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka; cultivated elsewhere in continental SE Asia, such as in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, where it is probably naturalized].

100-1400 m

Fl. Per.: March-April.

Lowland and hill forests; 100-1800 m.

Dialium coromandelinum Houttuyn, Nat. Hist. 2(2): 39. 1774; Calesiam grande (Dennstedt) Kuntze; Haberlia grandis Dennstedt; Lannea grandis (Dennstedt) Engler; L. wodier (Roxburgh) Adelbert; Odina pinnata Rotte; O. wodier Roxburgh; Rhus odina Buchanan-Hamilton.