Vepris bilocularis (Wight & Arn.) Engl. (RUTACEAE)
Common name
Kannada: Manguppe.
Malayalam: Karagil.
Sanskrit: Krishna guru.
Tamil: Devadarom.
Description: Evergreen trees, up to 30 m tall; stem bark grey-brownish, lenticellate. Leaves alternate, digitally 3-folio-late, 16.5 – 25 cm long; leaflets elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic – oblong, 8.5 – 21 x 4 – 8 cm, slightly oblique at base entire, acute or acuminate at apex, gland dotted; petioles up to 1 cm long; secondary nerves up to 40 pairs, close parallel. Flowers in panicles, unisexual, white.Panicles terminal or from uppermost leaf axils, up to 10 cm long. Calyx saucer-shaped, 2-3 lobed, rarely sepals 0. Petals 2 or 3, imbricate, orbicular, glandular. Stamens 6, exserted, anthers dorsifixed, oblong. Pistillodes cylindric, 2-cleft above. The ovary is globose and has 2-4 locules. Staminodes are rudimentary, featuring effete anthers. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, either subglobose or oblong, measuring approximately 1 x 2 cm, with two locules. Inside, there are two seeds that are oblong, flattened, and brownish.
Flowering: March – May.
Fruiting : August – September.
Distribution: India: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of southern Western Ghatsup to 1500 m. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.
Uses: Wood is tough and used for helves and handles, cartwheels and spokes. Root decoction given in biliousness; wood used in eye and ear diseases; decoction of wood boiled in oil used in rheumatic swellings, asthma and leprosy.
