Flacourtia indica - Madagascar Plum

❏ Binomial Name : Flacourtia indica (Burm.f.) Merr.

❏ Synonym : Gmelina indica,Flacourtia sepiaria ,Flacourtia cordifolia

❏ Family : Saliaceae

❏ Common Name : Madagascar Plum

❏ Tamil Name : Cottaik kala

❏ Hindi Name : Bilangada

❏ IUCN status: Not Evaluated

Flacourtia indica Botanical Description

Deciduous shrubs or small trees, about 3-7 m tall, usually armed with simple and branched spines, branches with sympodial growth. Leaves simple, alternate, variable, obovate-ovate, suborbicular-oblong, about 1.5-6 x 1-3 cm across, base cuneate to obtuse, sometimes 3-5 pliveined, margin lobed to coarsely serrate-crenate, apex acute, obtuse to sometimes slightly emarginate, leaves often clustered towards apices, lateral veins 5-8 on either side of the midrib, impressed above and slightly prominent beneath, glabrous above, glabrous beneath or pubescent to softly tomentose on the veins beneath, thicker near the midrib and diminishing towards the margins, lamina thick to thin, membranous, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, shiny, petiole reddish, minutely hairy, about 5-10 mm long, stipules minute early caducous or absent. Inflorescence in shortly pedunculate axillary and terminal raceme fascicles or panicles, bracteate, few flowered. Flowers unisexual (dioecious), hypogynous, greenish yellow, about 4 mm across, pedicels articulate, glabrous or hairy, about 3-5 mm long, sepals 4-5, imbricate, connate near base, ovate, margin ciliate, apex obtuse, hairy inside, subglabrous outside, petals absent, extrastaminal disc, with distinct glands inserted before sepals. Male flowers: Stamens numerous, filaments filiform, base minutely hairy, about 2.5 mm long, anthers 2 loculed, versatile, globular, dorsifixed, pollen fleshy, tricolporate, reticulate, pistillode absent. Female flowers: Ovary superior, globose, surrounded by disc, carpels 3-6, incompletely loculed, connate, with intruding placentae, ovules often 2 per locule, style 5-6, little or not connate, stigma slightly recurved, shortly bilobed. Fruit indehiscent berry, ellipsoid-globose, about 5-10 mm across, when ripe first red and turning to dark purple, with 2 superposed pyrenes in per locule. Seeds 5-6, ovoid-obovoid, thinly coriaceous, non arillate, pale yellow to brown. Fl. &Fr.: November-March.

Flacourtia indica Medicinal uses

❀ The leaves are used as an antidote to snake bites

❀ In India, an infusion of the bark is used as a gargle for hoarseness. In Madagascar, the bark, triturated in oil, is used as an anti-rheumatic liniment

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