Category: C

Carissa congesta Wight (APOCYNACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Karande, Karekai.
Malayalam: Kala, Karimullio.
Sanskrit: Karamarda.
Tamil: Kalaa, Kilaa.
Telugu: Kalivi, Waaka.
English: Bengal currant.

Description: Spreading shrubs with significant thorns and light grey bark; the branches typically alternate, bearing pairs of sturdy, sharp, horizontal, and smooth spines measuring 2.5-4 cm in length. Leaves elliptic-oblong or broadly ovate, 4-7.5 x 2.5 – 5 cm, cuneate to slightly rounded at base, blunty acute at apex, coriaceous, glabrous and shining; petioles 3-6 mm long. Flowers in terminal corymbose cymes, white. Calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla tube long, lobes 5, lanceolate, acute; white or pale rose. Stamens 5, inserted near the top of corolla-tube; anthers oblong; filaments short. Ovary 2-locular; style filiform; stigma slightly pencillate at the apex. Fruit a berry, spherical, ovoid or globose, 2-2.5 cm across, red turning purple or black when ripe. Seeds 4.

Flowering : January – April.
Fruiting : March – July.

Distribution: India: Throughout. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Fruits edible. Root stomachic and anthelmintic; decoction of leaves given in intermittent fever; fruit astringent, used in cardiac diseases; haemorrhage, diseases of nervous system, thirst and for alleviating vata and pitta.

Callicarpa tomentosa (L.) Murray (VERBENACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Doddanathada gida, Pandavara bathi.
Malayalam: Nallapompil.
Tamil: Verrilaippattai, Vettilaipattai.

Description: Compact trees reaching heights of 8-10 meters with rough, brownish bark; their young branches are covered in star-shaped hairs. Leaves opposite, ovate, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, 10-25 x 7-15 cm, acute or rounded at base, acuminate at apex, entire or toothed, dark-green, rugose, glabrous and shining above, with dense stellate tomentum beneath; main nerves 6-9 pairs; petioles 2-4 cm long, stout, densely tomentose. Flowers sessile, in axillary and terminal umbellate cymes, lilac purple. Calyx companulate, lobes 4, densely stellately tomentose. Corolla tubular, lobes 4. Stamens 4, exserted; filaments short, filiform; anthers cream-coloured. Ovary 4-locular; style short; stigma bilobed. Fruit a drupe, globose, ca 4 mm in diam., smooth, shining, black. Seeds 4, oblong.

Flowering & Fruiting : Throughout the year.

Distribution: India: Common in forests of the Western Ghats, up to 1300 m.

Uses: Wood pale brown, smooth, moderately hard, used for carving the legs of cots. Decoction of the bark used in fever, hepatic obstruction and skin diseases; leaves boiled in milk and used as wash for aphthae of mouth; flower and fruit used in epilepsy, diseases of nervous system, haemorrhage, oedema, cardiac diseases and dysuria.

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.

Cassia fistula L. (CAESALPINIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Kakke gida.
Tulu: Konde mara.
Malayalam: Konna.
Tamil: Konnei.
Telugu: Rola.
English: Indian Laburnum.

Description: Compact deciduous trees reaching heights of up to 8 meters; the bark is initially smooth and pale grey, later becoming rough and dark brown as they mature. Leaves paripinnately compound, 30-40 cm long; leaflets 4-8 pairs, ovate, 8-14 x 3 -5.5 cm, acute or cuneate at base, acute at apex; midrib densely pubescent on the underside; petiolule 0.5 – 1.0 cm long. Flowers in ca 40 cm drooping lax racemes, yellowish to bright yellow. Sepals 5, oblong, obtuse. Petals 5, subequal, obovate, shortly clawed. Stamens 10, all antheriferous, lower 3 larger. Ovary many ovuled; style incurved. Fruit an indehiscent pod, cylindrical, 60 x 2 cm, pendulous, transversely septate, black when dry. Seeds many (40-100), compressed.

Flowering : February – April.
Fruiting : May – December.

Distribution: Indo-Malesia, China.

Uses: Wood very hard, reddish brown, strong and durable, especially useful for house posts, bridge posts, rice pounders, wheels, ploughs and plough handles and shafts of carts. It makes excellent pickaxe and axe handles, mallet heads, tool handles etc. The bark known as “Sumari” is used in admixture with “Aavaram” bark (Cassia auriculataL.) in tanning. Frequently planted in gardens and avenues. Root-bark, leaf, fruit pulp and seed purgative, tonic and febrifuge. In Ayurveda root, bark, leaf, flower and fruit pulp used in the treatment of leprosy, fever, cardiac diseases, jaundice, polyuria and urticaria.

Casearia championii Thwaites (FLACOURTIACEAE)

Common names
Malayalam: Vella-kunnan

Description: Shrubs or small trees, up to 4 m tall; bark greyish, smooth. Leaves elliptic – oblong or lanceolate, 5-16 x 3-8 cm, attenuate at base, acute or acuminate at apex, the acumen often twisted crenato-repand to subentire, glabrous, green and glossy when mature; secondary veins 6-8 pairs; petioles 4-7 cm long. Flowers in axillary, pubescent racemose clusters, small, greenish yellow. Calyx 5-lobed, broadly ovate, ciliolate along margins. Stamens 8; filaments short, hairy; staminodes a little shorter than filaments, oblong, hairy. The ovoid ovary is smooth; the stigma curves back on a short style and has faint lobes. The fruit is a nearly round capsule, approximately 1.4 cm in length, yellow at maturity. Many seeds are enclosed by a sizable, torn, fleshy aril.

Flowering & Fruiting: May – September.

Distribution: India: In moist deciduous to disturbed evergreen forests of the Western Ghats up to 1050 m. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Sri Lanka.

Uses: The fruits are edible. The leaves are eaten in stews.The wood is hard and is used for making combs. The bark is used in tanning; it imparts a dark colour to leather. Decoction of root used in diabetes and piles; fruit diuretic.

Carallia brachiata (Lour.) Merr. (RHIZOPHORACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Andipunaru.
Tulu: Andipunaru.

Description: Trees, up to 20 m tall with creamy rough bark. Leaves opposite, elliptic-obovate, up to 12 x 8 cm, acute at base, obtuse or shortly acuminate at apex; stipules large, caducous. Flowers small, sessile, in small heads on axillary trichotomous cymes, up to 0.35 mm across, white. Calyx tube campanulate, divided to middle, lobes acute. Petals 8, free, obovate, clawed, inserted at the margin of disc. Stamens 16, free; anthers 2-celled. The ovary is semi-inferior, divided into four compartments, each containing two ovules; the stigma has four lobes. The fruit is a round berry, measuring up to 0.6 cm in length, initially green but turning red when ripe.

Flowering & Fruiting: October – January

Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Sri Lanka, China, Malaya and Australia.

Uses: The fruits are fleshy and edible. The leaves are used in Malacca as a beverage like tea. The oil extracted from seeds is used as a substitute for ghee. Wood red, hard, with a pretty silvery grain, used for house building, posts, furniture, cabinet work, rice pounders, agricultural implements, flooring, staircases, ornamental work and for veneered panels in railway carriages. It is also suitable for picture frames and brush backs. Bark used for itch; fruit used in ulcer therapy.