Maesa indica (Roxb.) DC. (MYRSINACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Mandase, Tanipela.
Sanskrit: Vayu vidanga.
Malayalam: Kiriti.
Description: Much branched shrubs or small trees; the stem usually covered with numerous small lenticels. Leaves alternate, elliptic ovate, ovate-oblong or elliptic lanceolate, up to 15 x 9 cm, rounded or subacute at base, acute or shorly acuminate at apex, serrate-dentate, shining above; petioles up to 2.5 cm long. Flowers small, in axillary 3-8 cm long racemes or panicles, white, faintly fragrant. Calyx tube adnate to the ovary, lobes 5. Petals 5 marked with coloured lines Stamens 5; filaments short, inserted on corolla tube. Ovary semi-inferior,1-locular; stigmas 3. The fruit is a globose berry, approximately 5 mm in diameter, with a creamy-white hue. It is covered nearly to the apex by the persistent calyx and is capped with a short style. The seeds are numerous and black.
Flowering & Fruiting: Almost throughout the year.
Distribution: India: Throughout. In deciduous and semi-evergreen forests. Malaya, Africa.
Uses: The leaves are said to be used in curries in Uttara Kannada. Wood soft, used for house posts. The wood is used as fuel. The fruits are used to poison fish. Root antisyphilitic; fruit anthelmintic