Wendlandia thyrsoidea (Roemer & Schultes) Steudel (RUBIACEAE)
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.
