Diploclisia glaucescens (Blume) Diels (MENISPERMACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Bootha Kannu.
Tulu: Bootha Kannu.
Tamil: Kottaiyachachi, Morasankodi.
Description: Woody climbers. Leaves alternate, paltate or not, broadly ovate to suborbicular, up to 11 x 9 cm, sub cordate to truncate at base, obtuse at apex, slightly crenate along margins, glaucous beneath; petioles up to 12 cm long. Flowers in large, up to 50 cm long, drooping panicles from old wood, yellow, faintly fragrant. Sepals 6 in two whorls of 3 each. Petals 6. Stamens in male flowers 6, opposite the petals; anthers dehiscing by transverse slits. The female flowers possess 6 staminodes. There are 3 carpels situated on a short gynophore. The obovoid drupelets, roughly 2.5 by 1.5 centimeters, display transverse ribs and vary in color from yellow to orange.
Flowering & Fruiting: March – August.
Distribution: India: In moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests, up to 1500 m. Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andaman Islands.Sri Lanka, Myanmar, S. China, Thailand, Indo-China and Malaysia.
Uses: Powdered leaf with milk given in biliousness, gonorrhoea and syphilis.
