Prismatomeris tetrandra (Roxb.) K.Schum., Nat. Pflanzenfam. 4(4): 138 (1891)

Name meaning 'four anthers'.

Synonyms
Coffea tetrandra Roxb.
Octotropis terminalis C.B.Clarke
Prismatomeris connata Y.Z.Ruan
Prismatomeris connata subsp. hainanensis Y.Z.Ruan
Prismatomeris multiflora Ridl.
Prismatomeris tetrandra subsp. multiflora (Ridl.) Y.Z.Ruan
Prismatomeris tetrandra var. multiflora (Ridl.) Y.Z. Ruan
Prismatomeris tetrandra var. philippinensis Ridl.
Prismatomeris tetrandra subsp. tetrandra

Diagnostics
Small trees with angular branches. Stipules splitting in two pointy tips. Leaves opposite, glabrous, 5-9 pairs of secondary veins. Flowers in clusters in leaf axils, white, with long corolla tube and five corolla lobes. Fruits berries, up to 12 mm diameter.

Description
Shrubs or small trees, to 8 m tall; branches quadrangular to subterete, glabrous. Petiole 4-15 mm, glabrous; leaf blade drying leathery to stiffly papery and rather shiny, lanceolate, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, ovate, obovate, or oblong-lanceolate, 4-18 x 2-6 cm, glabrous, base cuneate to acute, apex acuminate or acute to obtuse; secondary veins 5-9 pairs; stipules with sheath portion 0.2-1 mm, truncate, persistent or deciduous by fragmentation, bilobed, lobes linear to narrowly triangular, 0.1-0.5 mm, caducous. Peduncles 1-16 and fascicled or umbellate, 5-35 mm, simple or bearing an umbellate group of pedicels, at base with stipuliform bracts; pedicels when present 5-15 mm. Flowers pedunculate or pedicellate. Calyx glabrous or sparsely glandular-puberulent; hypanthium portion hemispherical, 1.5-2 mm; limb 1-2 mm, truncate or 4- or 5-denticulate. Corolla white or pale purple, salverform, glabrous outside; tube 14-20 mm; lobes 4 or 5, lanceolate, 7-10 mm, abaxially (i.e., dorsally) ridged at least in bud, acute to obtuse. Drupes subglobose, 8-12 mm in diam., glabrous, smooth. (from Flora of China]

Ecology
Forests, thickets; 300-2400 m.

Uses

Distribution
From India to southern China and Hainan into Indochina.

Local names
China: Si rui san jiao ban hua.
Tamil: Kattuchemengi.