Category: Uses and benefits

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.

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