Changes

*Madagascar ebony (En). *Ebène de Madagascar (Fr).

*Evergreen small tree up to 15 m tall; bole usually low-branching, up to 30(–40) cm in diameter; bark surface smooth to more or less rough, blackish brown, inner bark thin; crown with spreading branches; twigs usually glabrous. *Leaves alternate, simple and entire; stipules absent; petiole 3–10 mm long; blade elliptical-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, (3–)6–12 cm × (1.5–)2–6 cm, cuneate to rounded at base, short-acuminate at apex, wavy at margins, thin-leathery, pinnately veined with 4–7 pairs of lateral veins. Inflorescence an axillary fascicle, often on older branches or on the bole, up to 20-flowered. *Flowers unisexual, regular; pedicel slender, up to 5 cm long, strongly elongating in fruit; calyx cup-shaped, 3–8 mm long, short-hairy, with tube about as long as the 4 lobes, strongly enlarging in fruit; corolla slightly longer than calyx, with long tube and 4–6 rounded lobes; male flowers with 8–16 stamens, filaments very short; female flowers larger than male ones, with c. 6 rudimentary stamens, ovary superior, ovoid, reddish brown hairy, 8–10-celled, styles 8–10, fused at base. *Fruit an ovoid to oblong berry c. 3 cm long, brownish green, covered by a whitish powder, up to 8-seeded. *Seeds elongate, flattened, c. 12 mm long, blackish. *Seedling with epigeal germination.

* R.H.M.J. Lemmens , PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands * D. Louppe

* D. Louppe, CIRAD, Département Environnements et Sociétés, Cirad es-dir, Campus international de Baillarguet, TA C 105 / D (Bât. C, Bur. 113), 34398 Montpellier Cédex 5, France

Lemmens, R.H.M.J. & Louppe, D., 2011. '''Diospyros gracilipes''' Hiern. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Lemmens, R.H.M.J., Louppe, D. & Oteng-Amoako, A.A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.