Category: A

Anogeissus latifolia (DC.) Wallich ex Guill & Perr.(COMBRETACEAE)

Common name
Kannada: Dindiga.

Distribution: Deciduous trees. Leaves alternate or subopposite, elliptic-oblong or elliptic ovate upto 10 x 7 cm, obtuse, acute or retuse at apex, rounded to cordate at base, glabrous, lateral nerves 9-14 pairs. Heads solitary or in short cymes; peduncle pubescent. Calyx cream often tinged with pink; lobe refluxed. The fruits are arranged in spherical clusters, each approximately 1 centimeter in length.

Flowering & Fruiting: August – January.

Distribution: India: Common in deciduous forests. Sri Lanka.

Ancistrocladus heyneanus Wallich ex Graham (ANCISTROCLADIACEAE)

Description: Climbing shrubs characterized by their woody hooked branches. Leaves alternate, usually crowded at apex, oblanceolate or obovate, up to 20 x 6.5 cm, narrowed at base, acute at apex, gland-pitted. Flowers bisexual, minute, in dichotomously branched axillary or subterminal panicles, yellowish green. Calyx lobes 5, oblong, enlarged, rounded at apex, lobes in fruits spathulate, with 3 longer lobes and 2 shorter ones, gland – pitted. Petals 5, ovate – oblong, up to 8 x 4 mm, white. Stamens 10. Ovary unilocular, 1-ovuled; styles 3. Fruit a dry indehiscent nut, 5-winged, 1-seeded. Seeds globose, somewhat depressed above, corrugated.

Flowering: March – April
Fruiting: June – July

Distribution: India: Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Anamirta cocculus (L.) Wight & Arn. (MENISPERMACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Chiplukotte, Kage mari.
Sanskrit: Kakmari.
Tamil: Kakka-kolyvirai.

Description: Large woody stragglers with drooping branches; bark thick, corky. Leaves alternate, ovate to broadly ovate, up to 28 x 24 cm, cordate or truncate at base, acute to acuminate at apex; axils of principal nerves beneath with tufts of hairs; petioles up to 18 cm long. Flowers in large up to 40 cm long, drooping panicles from old branches, greenish white, scented. Perianth with 2 small outer and 6 large inner lobes. Stamens in male flowers connate in to a synandrium with 30-35 anthers forming a globose head on short, stout column of adherent filaments; anthers dehiscing transversely. Staminodes in female flowers 6, club shaped. Carpels 3(-4) on short gynophore; style lateral. The drupelets are approximately 1 x 0.8 centimeters in size, initially white and later transforming into a dark blue color.

Flowering & Fruiting : August – March.

Distribution: India: In evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, banks of rivers or streams, coastal forests, on limestone and sandy soil, up to 500 m. Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indo-China, Thailand to Malesia.

Uses: The fruits are used to stupefy fish and to poison crows. Plants used for external application in some types of ringworm and other skin affections; roots are used for treating tumours, phylariasis, poisoning, anaemia, dysponoea and hair falling; fruits are used to kill lice on scalp and are effective in treatment of schizophrenia, used as an antidote for barbiturate and morphine poisoning; fresh fruit juice is a good application to scabies and foul ulcers; seed antiphthisic.

Antidesma menasu Muell.-Arg. (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names:
Kannada: Kadivala soppu

Description: The trees reach heights of up to 10 meters; their branchlets, petioles, and peduncles are densely covered in pubescence. Leaves alternate, elliptic-oblong, up to 20 x 7 cm, acute or slightly rounded at base, acuminate or rarely acute at apex, chartaceous, glabrous. Flowers in terminal or axillary racemes, dioecious. Perianth lobes 4, hairy, persistent. Male flowers distinctly pedicelled; stamen 3-4, rarely 5, inserted in hollows of disc. Female flowers shortly pedicelled. Ovary 1-loculed; ovules 2; style 2-3 lobed. Fruit a drupe, oblong, slightly oblique, up to 5×3 mm, turning red with age, tipped by persistent stigmas. Seed solitary.

Flowering: February
Fruiting: May – September

Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of the Western Ghats in all districts up to 2000 m.

Uses: Fruits are edible

Antiaris toxicaria Lesch. (MORACEAE)

Common name
Kannada: Ajjana patte .

Description: Large trees; young parts pubescent. Petiole up to 1 cm; leaf blade elliptic-oblong, acuminate, rounded – cordate or truncate up to 16 x 11 cm. Scabrid and shining above sub coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-11 pairs. Male receptacle orbicular, reflexed; peduncle velvetly; perianth spathulate, hairy without stamens 4; filament very short or more. Anthers introse. The female receptacle surrounds a solitary flower with two elongated stigmatic lobes that are bifid.

Flowering & Fruiting: September – October.

Distribution: India: Frequent in Evergreen forests of Western Ghats.Malaysia.

Uses: Latex in small dose is mild cardic and circulating stimulant, in large doses a myocardinal poison; seeds used as a febrifuge and in dysentery.

Alangium salvifolium (L. f.) Wangerin subsp

Common names
Sanskrit: Ankola.
Kannada: Ankole, Guddada goni.
Tamil: Alangi.
Malayalam: Kimri.
Telugu: Ankolamu.

Description: A straggling, armed, evergreen shrub. Leaves alternate, broadly elliptic-ovate, subcordate at base, acuminate at apex, with distinct domatia in axils of veins on lower surface. Flowers axillary, bisexual, ca 2 cm long, white. The fruit is a drupe, ovoid in shape, measuring up to 2 centimeters across, adorned with remains of the calyx, and typically red. It contains a single, hard seed.

Flowering: April – May.
Fruiting: June – July.

Distribution: India: Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. E. Africa.

Uses: Fruits edible. Decoction of bark used as antidote for snakebite poisoning.

Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br. (APOCYNACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Haale, Maddale.
Tulu: Paale mara.
Malayalam: Mukampala, Chhatnia.
Sanskrit: Sapta-parna.
Tamil: Wodrase.
Telugu: Edakala pala
English: Devil’s tree.

Description: Large tree, up to 30 m tall, with milky latex; bark dark grey, rough, lenticellate. Leaves 4-7 (rarely more) in a whorl, rarely opposite, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, 10-20 x 4-6 cm, acute to slightly obtuse at base, rounded to emerginate at apex, glabrous, dark green above, pale and covered with a whitish bloom beneath; main nerves numerous; petioles 0.5 – 1.5 cm long. Flowers in umbellately branched many flowered capitate cymes, greenish white, fragrant. Calyx tube short, lobes 5,, puberulous. Corolla tube short, salvar-shaped, puberulous without, lobes 5, greenish white. Disc 0. Stamens 5, inserted near the throat of corolla; filaments short. Carpels 2, distinct; style filiform; stigma 2-fid. The fruit is a dehiscing follicle, cylindrical, measuring 20-50 centimeters in length. It contains numerous seeds that are linear-oblong, roughly 6 millimeters long, flattened, and adorned with a fringe of hairs at both ends.

Flowering & Fruiting : December – March.

Distribution: India: Throughout. Common in evergreen and deciduous forests. Sri Lanka, Java, Tropical Africa, Eastern Australia. (S. Asia through Malesia to Australiaand Melanesia).

Uses: Wood white, soft, even grained, used for packing cases, tea boxes and writing boards, but not durable. It could also be used for plywood and second class matches. The bark, known as “Dita bark” which has intense bitter taste, has been used in treating malaria and other fevers and also used as a bitter tonic, astringent, laxative, anthelmintic, galactogogue, alterative, antileprotic, in treating leucoderma, dental caries, stomach-ache, used in the liquid extract form for chronic diarrhoea, asthma and cardiac troubles; the milky latex from the plant is applied externally to treat sores, ulcers, tumours and rheumatic pains and also administered to women after confinement; leaves used in beriberi, dropsy and fever; leaf and bark used in treating ulcers. It is included as an ingredient in ‘Saptachhaladi Kuatha,’ ‘Panchtiktogan Batis,’ ‘Saptacchaladi Taila,’ and ‘Saptaparna Ghaua satva.’

Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth. (MIMOSACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Baage.
Malayalam: Vaga.
Tamil: Vagei.
Telugu: Dirasana.

Description: Tall deciduous trees, reaching heights of 15-20 meters, characterized by their light-colored bark. Leaves abruptly bipinnate; rachis ca 10 cm long with a gland near base of petiole and one below uppermost pair of pinnae; pinnae usually 2 pairs; leaflets 3-4 pairs, obliquely oblong, ca 4 x 2.5 cm, truncate or rounded at base, retuse or obtuse at apex, shining, glabrous above, pubescent and reticulately veined beneath. Flowers in globose heads, white, pedicelled; heads 1-few, fascicled. Calyx tubular, 5-lobed. Corolla 5-lobed, white, tube glabrous, lobes triangular, acute. Stamens numerous, much longer than the corolla; filaments connate at the base into a short tube. Ovary sessile; style filiform; stigma minute, capitate. Fruit a dehiscing pod, strap-shaped, ca 35 x 4 cm, flat, blunty pointed, thin, pale yellow. Seeds 4-12, ellipsoid-oblong, compressed, pale brown.

Flowering & Fruiting: January – April.

Distribution: India: Throughout, often planted and run wild. Tropical and subtropical Asia and Africa.

Uses:

• Wood light, dark brown and streaked. It is excellent for furniture, internal decoration, paneling and railway carriage work. It is useful for construction purposes, agricultural implements, oil-presses and cane crushers. It is also useful for making carts and carriages, for well-curbs, carvings etc. It is a good fuel wood. A reddish brown gum exudes from the bark which is adulterated with gum arabic and is used for the same purpose as the latter. The bark contain tannin used to tan fishing nets.
• The leaves and twigs are lopped for fodder. Often planted as a roadside tree. It is grown for shade in tea and coffee plantations, and the shed leaves make a good manure. Leaves and seeds used in eye troubles; bark for boils. In Ayurveda bark, leaf, flower and seed are used for treating leprosy, erysipelas, wounds, cough, dyspnoea and as antidote for snakebites, food and other poisoning. The bark is recognized for its anti-inflammatory properties and is incorporated into Ayurvedic formulations such as “Mahashirishagada” and “Sirisharista.”

Ailanthus triphysa (Dennst.) Alston (SIMAROUBACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Dhupa, Hal-maddi
Tamil: Peru
Malayalam: Peru-marattoli
Telugu: Perumarum

Description: Lofty deciduous trees, up to 40 m tall. Leaves crowded, mostly paripinnate; leaf rachis 30 – 55 cm long; leaflets 14-22, opposite, subopposite or alternate, falcate, obliquely ovate-oblong, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, up to 15 x 4 cm, acute-acuminate at apex, entire or wavy along the margins, glaucaus beneath; petiolules up to 0.6 cm long. Flowers in dense axillary up to 50 cm long panicles, polygamous. Petals oblong-lanceolate, up to 5 x 1.5 mm, greenish-yellow. Stamens 3-4 mm long in male flowers; filaments filiform with spreading hairs; anthers ovate-cordate. Styles free at base, connate above; stigma 3-4 lobed, peltate. The fruit, a samara, is linear-oblong, measuring up to 9.5 by 2.5 centimeters, not twisted, and rounded at both ends.

Flowering & Fruiting: December – May

Distribution: India: Common in evergreen forests up to 1500 m. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Sri Lanka, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.

Uses: The wood is very light and soft and used for packing-cases, fishing floats, boats, toys etc. A highly viscous aromatic resin is obtained when incisions are made in the bark. It is collected for local use as incense and forms an ingredient of agar-bathis. Bark carminative, tonic, febrifuge, used in dyspepsia; resin from the bark (Mittipal)/ bark juice stimulant, used in asthma, bronchial affections, dysentery; bark decoction used in typhoid and constipation; root bark antidote for cobra poisoning.

Aglaia lawii (Wight) C.J. Saldanha (MELIACEAE)

Description: Trees reaching heights of up to 15 meters; the young sections, inflorescence, calyx, and fruits are enveloped in yellowish-brown lepidote scales. Leaves up to 40 cm long; leaflets 5, laterals opposite, some times alternate, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic, up to 16 x 6 cm, oblique at base, acute at apex. Flowers polygamous, white with male flowers in panicles and female and bisexual flowers in short spikes. Calyx 4-toothed. Petals 4, oblong. Stamens 8, attached near base of globose staminal tube. Ovary lepidote; stigma 3-lobed. Capsules pyriform, ca 2.5 cm long, buff coloured, 3-locular. Seeds 2-3, arillate.

Flowering & Fruiting: December – February.

Distribution: India: In semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats.Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Endemic.