Wrightia tinctoria R. Br. (APOCYNACEAE)
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.
