Calycopteris floribunda Lam. (COMBRETACEAE)
Common names
Sankrit: Shwetadataki.
Kannada: Anjeeru, Marasuthu balli.
Tamil: Minnargodi.
Telugu: Advijama.
Description: Straggling shrubs; young parts pubescent. Leaves opposite, elliptic- oblong or ovate-elliptic, 4.5 – 10 x 2.5 cm, rounded at base, acute to acuminate at apex, , silky pubescent above when young, fulvous tomentose beneath with numerous pellucid glands. Flowers in dense panicles at the ends of branches. Calyx lobes 5, white, showy, persistant, calyx tube elongate, 5-angled produced above the ovary. Petals 0. Stamens 10 in 2 series. The ovary is inferior, consisting of one cell with three ovules. The fruit is five-angled, topped by an enlarged calyx that becomes brownish or yellow and hairy. It contains a single seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: January – April.
Distribution: Indomalaysia.
Uses: The wood is yellowish white, moderately hard and used for making tool handles. Root antidote for snakebite; leaves astringent, laxative, anthelmintic, used in colic and applied in ulcers, when ground and administered with butter, they are reported to cure dysentery and malaria fever. Flower used in worm infection, scorpion sting poisoning, snakebite poisoning, thirst, leprosy and diarrhoea.