Ardisia solanacea Roxb. (MYRSINACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Bodina gida.
Malayalam: Mollakka.
Tamil: Manipudban, Koshikkottai.
Telugu: Kondamayuri.
Description: Shrubs or small trees up to 10 m tall; branchlets stout, marked with the scars of fallen leaves. Leaves alternate, elliptic or oblanceolate, up to 22 x 7.5 cm, attenuate at base, acute or acuminate at apex, minutely dotted; petioles ca 1.5 cm long, chandelled. Flowers in axillary, corymbose or umbellate racemes, pink. Calyx divided to the base, lobes 5. Corolla punctuate, pink, lobes 5, persistent. Stamens 5, connivent around the style, exserted. The ovary is unilocular. The fruit, a berry, is globular and can reach up to 8 mm in diameter, with a persistent style at the tip and turns black when fully ripe.
Flowering & Fruiting : Throughout the year.
Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Common in evergreen forests and moist places along streams up to 1500 m. China, Malaya.
Uses: The leaves are eaten as salad. Roots used in fever, diarrhoea and rheumatism.