Category: A

Atalantia recemosa Wight (RUTACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Huchu nimbe.

Description: Bushes or moderate-sized trees, reaching heights of up to 15 meters, frequently adorned with robust axillary spines, seldom without any spines. Leaves alternate, 1-foliolate; petiole 5-10 mm long, jointed at apex; leaflet elliptic-oblong or ovate-oblong, up to 10 x 4 cm, cuneate at base, emarginate at apex, entire or crenulate along margins, prominently reticulate, gland-dotted. Flowers in axillary or terminal raceme, white; peduncle up to 4 cm long. Calyx united at base, lobes 3-5, ciliate along margins. Petals usually 4, broadly elliptic or linear-oblong to obovate, up to 8 x 4 mm, obtuse. Stamens usually 8; filaments usually connate into a partial basal tube. Disc annular, fleshy. Ovary 2-3 locular; ovules 2 in each locule. Style short; stigma capitate. Berries globose, up to 2 cm across, gland-pitted, orange-coloured when ripe, 2-seeded.

Flowering: October
Fruiting: January

Distribution: India: In dry deciduous to semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats up to 1370 m. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sri Lanka.

Artocarpus hirsutus Lam. (MORACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Hebbalasu.
Tulu: Peja.
Tamil: Kattuppala, Aiyinipala.
Malayalam: Ayani, Anjili, Ayini plavu.
Telugu: Adavi pana.
Sanskrit: Lakucah

Description: Evergreen trees, up to 40 m tall. Leaves alternate, broadly elliptic-ovate, up to 18 x 12 cm, rounded at base, acuminate at apex. Flowers monoecious, on axillary pedunculate receptacles; the male receptacles narrowly cylindric, up to 15 x 1 cm; the female receptacles ca 15 x 9 cm. Perianth lobes 2, shortly connate below in male flowers; in female tubular. Stamen 1. The fruit is a syncarp, cylindrical to ellipsoidal, measuring about 15 x 10 cm, covered in long, spiny processes, and turns orange when ripe. The seeds are ovoid, reaching up to 1.8 cm in length.

Flowering & Fruiting: January – May

Distribution: India: In moist deciduous to semi-evergreen forests. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic to South W. India. A threatened species.

Uses: Fruits are edible. Wood yellowish brown, moderately hard, durable, seasons and polishes well, does not wrap or crack, not eaten by white ants, valuable for construction work (beams, rafters, door and window frames), panelling, flooring, furniture, cooperage, agricultural implements and boat building. It can also be used for tea boxes. Infusion of bark applied to cure pimples and cracks on the skin. Powdered bark used to heal sores; dry leaves useful in treating buboes and hydrocele; unripe fruit astringent, ripe fruit appetiser, cooling, aphrodisiac, useful in vitiated condition of vata and pitta, and anorexia.

Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. (MORACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Halasu.
Tulu: Pelakkai.
Malayalam: Pila, Pilavu.
Tamil: Palamaram.
English: Jack.

Description: Towering evergreen trees reaching heights of up to 25 meters. Leaves alternate, elliptic, oblong, or obovate-oblong, up to 12 x 7 cm, cuneate at base, obtuse to subacuminate at apex; stipules large, spathaceous, up to 8 x 4 cm. Flowers monoecious, on pedunculate receptacles; male inflorescence cylindric; female inflorescence ellipsoid, from old wood. Perianth lobes 2. stamen 1. Fruit a syncarp, very lare, oblong or cylindric, up to 60 cm long, tubercled. Seeds oblong or reniform.

Flowering & Fruiting: December – June.

Distribution: India: In moist deciduous to semi-evergreen forests. Native of South-West India. Cultivated elsewhere.

Uses: The golden pulp of the fruit is commonly consumed, as are the seeds once they have been roasted or boiled. Unripe jack fruit is used as a vegetable. Wood is used in the manufacture of furniture, for brush backs, inlay work, turnery and musical instruments. An extract of the heartwood with alum is used by Buddhist priests for dyeing their robes yellow. Ripe and unripe fruits, seeds and leaves are used as tonic and for treating diseases of vata and pitta, in spermatorrhoea and bleeding wounds.

Artocarpus gomezianus Wallich ex Trecul subsp

Common names
Kannada: Vate huli.
Malayalam: Chima, Thittipilavu.
Telugu: Nakkarenu.
English: Monkey jack.

Description: Large deciduous trees, up to 25 m tall; young shoots densely tomentose. Leaves alternate, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, up to 25 x 12 cm, truncate or subcordate at base, acuminate at apex; grey-pubescent beneath; stipules small, grey-pubescent. Flowers monoecious, in axillary, globose, shortly pedunculate heads. The fruit is a syncarp, exhibiting a smooth, fleshy texture and irregular lobes. The seeds are oblong in shape.

Flowering : January – April.

Distribution: India: Found in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests. South West India. Sometimes cultivated.
Sri Lanka.

Uses: The sour fruit is dried and used as a substitute for tamarind in curries. Wood used for construction work, furniture and for boat building. Wood and fruits yield a yellow dye. Fruit and bark are used in lack of appetite, eye diseases and as aphrodisiac.

Archidendron monadelphum (Roxb.) Nielsen (MIMOSACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Kadu kondemara.
Malayalam: Mutha kolappan.
Tamil: Kal pakku.

Description: Small trees, 10-15 m tall with thin, smooth bark. Leaves bipinnate with a gland on the petiole and one each at base of pinnae and leaflets; rachis 10-15 cm long; petiole 3-4 cm long; pinnae 1-2 pairs; leaflets up to 4 pairs, ovate or elliptic-oblong, 7.5-15 x 2.5-4 cm, rounded at base, acute to acuminate at apex, subcoriaceous, glabrous above, pubescent at first beneath; petiolules ca 0.3 cm long. Flowers in few-flowered heads which are often panicled, white, subsessile. Calyx 5-lobed, campanulate, densely brown-silky. Corolla 2-3 times as long as calyx, lobes 5, lanceolate, silky outside, pale-yellowish or cream -coloured. Stamens many, monadelphous, exserted. Ovary many ovuled; style filiform; stigma minute. The fruit is a dehiscing pod, coiled in shape, measuring around 8 x 1.5 cm, with a brown exterior and an orange-red interior. It contains 5-8 seeds that are black and lack an aril (exarillate).

Flowering & Fruiting: January – July.

Distribution: India: South W. India, Eastern Himalayas. Frequent in semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests of Western Ghats, up to 1000 m.
Sri Lanka, Malaya, Philippines.

Uses: Decoction of leaves used in leprosy and for promoting growth of hairs; seeds used in diabetes.

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.

Arenga wightii Griffith (PALMAE)

Common names
Kannada: Dhudsal, Kaadu eechalu.
Malayalam: Alathil tenga, Malam tengu.
Tamil: Alam panei.

Description: Slender palms, forming dense clumps by suckers, ca 10 m tall and ca 30 cm diam., smooth, grey; densely clothed with black fibrous remains of the leaf sheaths. Leaves 30-70 cm long; leaflets alternate, crowded, linear-ensiform, 30-115 x 4-10 cm, narrowed at apex, dark green above, white beneath, margins sparingly toothed from the middle, 2-aurcled at the base, the lower auricle very large, 3-5 cm long, obliquely overlapping the petiole; petioles 10-20 cm long. Flowers unisexual, in separate spadices, ca 1.5 m long. Sepals 3, orbicular with thick bases. Petals 3, oblong, very thick and coriaceous. Male flowers: strongly scented, distant. Stamens numerous; filaments short; anthers apiculate; pistillode 0. Female flowers: staminodes many or 0. Ovary 3-loculed; stigmas 3, short, recurved. The fruits are arranged spirally and densely clustered on the lower portions of the spadix branches. They are depressed globose, approximately 3 cm across, crowned with the remnants of stigmas, and turn yellow when ripe. The seeds, numbering 3, are compressed, flat on one side and curved on the other (plano-convex), smooth, and brown in color.

Flowering & Fruiting: November – June.

Distribution: India: South W. India. Common in the forests of Western Ghats up to 1000 m. Endemic.

Uses: Toddy is obtained by tapping the peduncle. Pith sweetish and edible. Leaves are also eaten when tender.

Aporusa lindleyana (Wight) Baillon (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names
Sanskrit: Valaka.
Kannada: Sellegida, Saroli.
Tamil: Vittil.
Malayalam: Vittil.

Description: Small, dioecious trees up to 15 m tall; branchlets angular. Leaves alternate, elliptic-oblong, 6-15.5 x 2.8-7.2, acute or rounded at base, rounded or shortly acuminate at apex; midrib impressed and channeled above. Male flowers in axillary catkin like spikes, up to 8 cm, yellowish green; female flowers in long spikes up to 1.5 cm. Calyx 4-partite, persistent in female. Petals 0. Stamens 3-4. Ovary 2-locular, ovules 2 per locule; stigma 2, 2-fid. The fruit is a capsule, appearing subglobose and smooth, measuring 1-1.5cm in length, and dehiscent. It contains 2-4 seeds, which are ovoid, smooth, and lack an aril (exarillate).

Flowering & Fruiting: September – May.

Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Common in deciduous to evergreen forests ofWestern Ghats and coastal plains. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Fruits edible. Wood used in construction of huts. Leaves used as fodder. Root febrifuge, anticephalagic, used in treatment of jaundice, insanity and seminal loss.

Aphanamixis polystachya (Wallich) R. Parker (MELIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Rohithaca

Description: Towering evergreen trees, reaching heights of up to 20 meters, exhibiting a dense, expansive, umbrella-shaped crown. Leaves alternate, crowded at ends of branchlets, imparipinnate, 20-70 cm long; rachis up to 12 cm long, channeled above; leaflets 9 – 19, opposite or subalternate, oblong-lanceolate or ovate, 8-25 x 4-10 cm, obliquely acute at base, acuminate at apex, entire, glabrous; secondary nerves 12-15 on each side. Flowers in spikes, polygamous, dull-white. Male spikes panicled, as long as leaves; female spikes much shorter. Female flowers larger than male flowers. Calyx 5—lobed with ciliolate margins. Petals 3, broadly elliptic to orbicular, concave. Staminal tube nearly as long as petals; anthers 6, subsessile. Disk tawny-pubescent. Ovary villous. Pistillode with rudimentary ovules. Fruit a capsule, obovoid, up to 4 cm across, 3-valved, smooth, yellow or purplish. Seeds oblong with a scarlet aril.

Flowering: January – December

Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Uses: The wood reddish when fresh, gradually becoming reddish brown, moderately heavy, saws and works well taking a smooth finish and a good polish and durable under cover. It is used for dugouts, canoes, roof structures and light construction works. Bark astringent, antihelmintic, used in diseases of liver and spleen, anorexia, abdominal complaints, tumors, ulcers, muscular pains, wounds, leucorrhoea, obesity, diseases of blood, eye and ear; pounded bark in poultice form applied in rheumatism; seeds laxative, antihelmintic; seed oil antirheumatic.

Apodytes dimidiata E. meyer ex Arn. (ICACINACEAE)

Description: Trees up to 12 m tall. Young branches tomentose. Leaves typically measure 4.5 to 11 centimeters in length and 2.5 to 4.5 centimeters in width, displaying an ovate shape with an acuminate apex, usually subacute, and occasionally showing unequal bases.Flowers white, bisexual, in terminal, panicles, corymbose cymes; peduncle 1.8 – 3.5 cm long. Calyx up to 2 mm long; lobes 5, obscure. Corolla lobes 5, each 4-5 mm long, oblong elliptic, reflexed. Stamens 5 free; filaments 3-4 mm long. Ovary up to 2 mm long, unilocular; ovules 2, style up to 1 mm long. Drupe, obliquely ellipsoid compressed; up to 1 x 0.6 cm; seed 1

Distribution: India: In evergreen and semi evergreen forests. Tropical Africa, Sri Lanka, Malaysia.