Canthium dicoccum (Gaertner) Teys. & Binn. var. umbellatum(Wight) Santapau & Merch. (RUBIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Amme mara, Amme hannu.
Tamil: Nallamanthanam.
Description: Trees without thorns, reaching heights of 8-10 meters with smooth grey bark. Their leaves are arranged opposite to each other, shaped as elliptic-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, measuring 8-15 x 3-5 cm, with a pointed base, a shortly acuminate tip, and a smooth surface; their petioles are around 1 cm long. Flowers in dense, axillary umbellate cymes, white. Calyx pubescent, lobes 5. Corolla-tube short, lobes 5, reflexed, white. Stamens 5, attached to the throat of corolla; filaments short, white-hairy near the base. Ovary 2-locular; style short, glabrous; stigma capitate. Fruit a drupe, obovoid, ca 1.5 cm across. Seeds 2, oblong.
Flowering & Fruiting : November – February.
Distribution: India: In evergreen and dry evergreen forests of south India, hilly regions, up to 2000 m. Myanmar.
Uses: Bark employed as a febrifuge and applied externally in fractures.