Common names
Kannada: Beppalli, Kodamurki, Kodesige.
Malayalam: Aiyapala, Kotakappalla.
Sanskrit: Hvamovaka, Sveta kutaja.
Tamil: Nilapalai, Irumpalai, Veypale.
Telugu: Amkudu, Tedla pala.
English: Pala Indigo plant.

Description: Small deciduous trees up to 8-10 m tall with milky latex; bark scaly, smooth. Leaves opposite, variable, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, up to 15 x 5 cm, acute or rounded at base, acuminate at apex; petioles ca 5 mm long. Flowers in lax terminal ca 6 cm long cymes, white, fragrant. Calyx glandular within, lobes 5. Corolla-tube short, lobes 5; throat of corolla-tube with fibriate conona scales in 2 rows. Stamens 5, inserted in the mouth of the corolla-tube; anthers sagitate. Ovary 2-locular; stigma 2-fid. The fruits consist of two separate pendulous follicles that are cylindrical, reaching up to 25 cm in length. When young, they cohere at the tip. The seeds are numerous, linear, 1-2 cm long, pointed at the apex, and accompanied by a deciduous coma, approximately 3 cm long, at the base.

Flowering & Fruiting: March– November.

Distribution: India: In deciduous forests, especially in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and peninsular India, Ascending to an altitude of ca 1300 m.
Sri Lanka, Timor.

Uses:

• The flowers are utilized as a vegetable, and the tender leaves, pods, and seeds are also consumed. The wood finds extensive use in various turnery applications across different classes. It is made into cups, plates, combs, chessmen, pen-holders, pencils and bedsteadlegs. It is also used for carving, frames, spoons, small boxes and screens. It is used for making the celebrated Channapatna toys and for idols. The wood is suitable for matchboxes and splints, for making bobbins, engraving and printing-blocks, mathematical instruments and rulers. It is also suitable for stained wood inlay-work and for the manufacture of lacquerware articles.
• The leaves yields a blue dye called Mysore Pala Indigo. The leaves are eaten by cattle, sheep and goats. In south India, the plant is used for green manuring rice fields. The handsome, jasmine-scented, star-shaped flowers are much esteemed by Hindus for offerings at temples. Bark – antidropsical, tonic, antidysenteric, used in piles, skin diseases; seed-aphrodisiac, astringent, febrifuge, antidysenteric, anthelmintic; bark and seed used in flatulence and bilious troubles.

Uses: An adhesive, useful for patching high pressure hose pipes, can be prepared from the latex. Flowers used in inflammation of cornea.

Common names
Malayalam: Pavu.
Tamil: Kadamban.

Description: Small trees, 5-10 m tall; young branches pubescent. Leaves usually ternately whorled, elliptic-lanceolate, 5-10 x 2.5-4 cm, cuneate or acute at base, acute at apex, pubescent beneath; main nerves 8-10 pairs, prominent, pink on the young leaves; petioles 5-8 mm long. Flowers in 15-30 cm long dense pyramidal hirsute panicles, yellowish, fragrant. Calyx tube globose, pubescent, lobes 5. Corolla tube cylindric, hairy inside, lobes 5. white, pale yellow. Stamens 5, inserted near the mouth of the corolla; filaments minute. The ovary is 2-locular, with a bifid style and a fusiform stigma. The fruit is a globose, loculicidal capsule, measuring approximately 3 mm in diameter, pubescent, and crowned with the calyx teeth. Numerous very small seeds are present.

Flowering & Fruiting : December – May.

Distribution: India: Frequent in hills of Deccan, Western Ghats, to the Nilgiris, Pulney and Travancore. Sri Lanka.

Common names
Kannada: Hegalu balli.
Tamil: Kurincha.

Description: Large twining shrubs with watery sap except milky in follicles; older branches ash-colored; often with lenticels; young branches green, slender, smooth. Leaves opposite, broadly ovate or subordicular, 6-15 x 4-12 cm, rounded or cordate at base, acuminate at apex, glabrous, softly pubescent; petioles 1.5-3 cm long. Flowers in 2-5 cm long lateral drooping umbellate cymes, green or yellowish green; peduncles arising from between the petioles. Calyx 5-partite with glands at the base. Corolla lobes 5, pale green. Corona single; lobes 5, fleshy, truncate, attached to the base of staminal column; pollinia 2, erect. Ovary 2-locular, style short, apex dome-shaped. The fruit consists of woody follicles, blunt at the apex, measuring 7-10 x 2.5 cm. They exhibit rugose striations and are glabrous. Numerous seeds, broadly ovate and 0.8 – 1.5 cm long, are flattened and pale yellowish-brown. The coma, approximately 4.5 cm long, is copious.

Flowering & Fruiting: March– November.

Distribution: India: Western Peninsula. Common in plains and hills, up to 1600 m. West Bengal, Assam. Sri Lanka, Java, Indomalesia.

Uses: Leaves, flowers and the rind of unripe fruits are boiled and eaten as a vegetable or used in curries, the cooking removes the bitterness and nauseating property of fruits. Plant yields a very strong fibre. Twining stems are used as substitute for ropes. Plant juice used as sternutatory; root and tender stalk emetic and purgative; leaf used in applications for boils and abcesses.