Phyllanthus virgatus G.Forst.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym:  Phyllanthus simplex Retz.

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Moist and dry deciduous forests and grasslands, also in the plains

Flowering & Fruiting: Throughout the year

Distribution: India, Himalayas, Indo-China, China, Malaysia, Polynesia

Key identification features: Seed Under Leaf is a slender, branched, hairless herb. Alternately arranged leaves, are elliptic-oblong. Flowers are tiny, hanging from slender stalks. Male flowers on shorter, with oblong sepals and free stamens. Female flowers are on longer often together with 1 or 2 male flowers. Capsules are depressed spheres.

Uses: Used for liver ailments, jaundice, diabetes, gonorrhea.

Phyllanthus reticulatus Poir.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Anisonema reticulatum (Poir.) A.Juss., Cicca reticulata (Poir.) Kurz

Vernacular name: Kattuniruri,Kilanelli,Neeroli,Neeruri,Nirnelli,Poolanchedy

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Stream banks, lake shores and also in moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests

Distribution: Paleotropics

Flowering and Fruiting: August-December

Key identification features: Scandent shrubs have pubescent branches with leaves that are elliptic, Male flowers occur in axillary fascicles. Female flowers are solitary. Fruits is globose, black with 8-10 seeds.

Uses: The twigs are used as chew-sticks and toothbrushes. Stem and leaf decoction is used as mordant and for dyeing cotton black. A soup made of the leaves, boiled with palm fruits, given to woman after child-birth.

Phyllanthus myrtifolius (Wight) Müll.Arg

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Diasperus myrtifolius (Wight) Kuntze, Macraea myrtifolia Wight

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Grown as a hedge plant in gardens

Flowering & Fruiting: May-August.

Distribution: Sri Lanka, China Southeast, Hainan, India, Taiwan, Thailand

Key identification features: Mousetail plant is a small shrub with tiny inverted-lance shaped leaves and small, slender, pendulous red flowers which probably inspired the name Mousetail Plant. Flowers are typically longer than the leaves and hang down by slender, red filament-like stalks, ending in a roundish bowl-like flower. Fruits are capsules

Phyllanthus emblica L.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Cicca emblica (L.) Kurz, Diasperus emblica (L.) Kuntze

Vernacular name: Amalakam,Nell, Nellikka

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Dry and moist deciduous forests, also cultivated in the plains

Distribution: Throughout the tropics , India, Himalayas, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Nepal

Flowering and Fruiting: March-September

Key identification features: The deciduous tree has grey-brown bark. The leaves are simple, alternate, and grow in pairs on short deciduous branchlets, forming a closely overlapping pattern. The tree produces unisexual flowers, which are greenish-yellow. Fruit is a capsule which is subglobose.

Uses: The twigs are used to purify water, especially saline water. Fruit eaten by Sambar and Spotted deer. The fruit (Amla/Aonla) is highly medicinal and is edible fresh, pickled or cooked.

Phyllanthus amarus Schumach. & Thonn.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Diasperus nanus (Hook.f.) Kuntze, Phyllanthus nanus Hook.f.

Vernacular name: Keezhanelli, Keezharnelli, Kiruthaanelli, Kizhukanelli

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Degraded moist deciduous forests and forest plantations, also in the plains

Distribution: Tropics

Flowering and Fruiting: Throughout the year

Key identification features:

Uses: Good tonic, diuretic and febrifuge, Aqueous extracts show potent anticarcinogenic activity against development of different tumour types.

Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Royle

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym:  Securinega virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Baill.

Vernacular name: Perimklavu, Vellapoolam

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Dry and moist deciduous forests and wastelands

Flowering & Fruiting: March-December

Distribution: Paleotropics

Key identification features: Profusely branched dioecious shrubs. Leaves alternate, obovate, base cuneate, apex obtuse, glaucous below, chartaceous; Flowers minute in axillary clusturs, short-pedicelled. Male flowers numerous; tepals 5, ovate-concave, crenulate; stamens 5, free; pistillodes 3. Female flowers tepals 5, ovate. Fruit white, globose.

Uses: Contraceptives and for the treatment of syphilis, gonorrhoea, rheumatism, sterility, rashes, and an infusion of the root is taken to relieve malaria

Bridelia stipularis (L.) Blume

 

Family: Phyllanthaceae

Synonym: Bridelia scandens (Roxb.) Willd.

 Vernacular name: bushveld bridelia, velvet sweetberry and velvet-leaved bridelia

Habit: Climbing shrub

Habitat: Semi- evergreen & Moist Deciduous Forests. Endemic to Peninsular India

Distribution: Peninsular India

Flowering and Fruiting: December-February

Key identification features: It is a climbing shrub. The leaves are simple, alternate, and elliptic in shape. The flowers are small, greenish-yellow, and borne in axillary cluster. The fruits are small, fleshy, and red when ripe.

Uses: The latex is used as an adhesive ingredient in arrow poison

Bridelia retusa (L.) A.Juss.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Clutia retusa L.

Vernacular name: Mulkaini, Ulluvenga

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Semi-evergreen and deciduous forests, also in the plains

Distribution: Indo-Malaya

Flowering and Fruiting: August-December

Key identification features: These trees bark is greyish-brown. Young trees are armed with sharp thorns. The leaves are simple and alternate. The unisexual flowers are greenish-yellow and can be sessile. The fruit is a drupe purplish-black in color. It sits on the persistent calyx. Inside, there are 2 pyrenes, each containing a single seed.

Uses: The bark is antiviral, hypoglycaemic, hypotensive. The wood is used for construction, railway ties, rafters, posts, and floor-boards; also used for cart-shafts, wheels and agricultural implements.

Bischofia javanica Blume

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Andrachne apetala Roxb. ex Benth., Andrachne trifoliata Roxb.

Vernacular name: Cholavenga, Chorakkali, Miachethayan, Nannalamaram, Neeli, Nira,

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Evergreen and semi-Evergreen forests

Distribution: India, Myanmar, China, Malaysia, Polynesia

Flowering and Fruiting: March-December

Key identification features: Deciduous trees with brown, thin, and scaly bark. Their leaves are 3-foliate, alternate. The leaves are glabrous and membranous. The unisexual green flowers grow in axillary and lateral peduncled paniculate racemes. The fruit is a reddish-brown, globose berry containing 3 seeds.

Uses: Fruits eaten in Borneo (Sarawak); wood used as firewood in New Guinea and for fencing (grows!) in the Solomon Islands; in the latter the squeezed bark or the latex is used as a brown or black dye.

 

Baccaurea courtallensis (Wight) Müll.Arg.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Pierardia courtallensis Wight, Baccaurea macrostachya Wight ex Hook.f.

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Evergreen and semi evergreen forests

Distribution: Peninsular India (Western)

Flowering & Fruiting: January-June

Key identification features: Remarkable for their flowers growing in long racemose spikes in tufts on tubercles on the stem. Leaves alternate, often clustered towards the branch tips. Bark white. Flowers dioecious, in densely clustered, slender racemes. Fruit capsule,  globose, tomentose, red. Fruit very acidic and edible. Seeds 3, oblong, arillate.

Uses: Fruit edible

Aporosa cardiosperma (Gaertn.) Merr.

 Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Aporosa lindleyana (Wight) Baill.

Vernacular name: Aechil, Eachil, Kotili, Neervetti, Ponvetti, Vetti

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Semi-evergreen and Evergreen forests, also in the plains

Distribution: Peninsular India and Sri Lanka

Flowering & Fruiting: December-June

Key identification features: An evergreen tree. Leaves are simple, flowers minute, dioecious, male flowers occur in catkin like spikes, female flowers are in short racemes. Used in construction of houses especially rafters. The fruit is said to be edible.

Uses: Fruit edible. Timber yielding, as fuel wood   

Antidesma acidum Retz.

 

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Stilago diandra Roxb., Antidesma diandrum (Roxb.) Spreng.

Vernacular name: Asaripuli, Areepazham, Arippazhachedi, Sirupulli

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Semi- evergreen & Moist Deciduous Forests

Distribution: Tropical Asia

Flowering and Fruiting: April - July. Fruit ripen June - January

Key identification features: It is a large shrubs with young stem, petioles and leaf below villous with curled hairs. Spikes are terminal. Male flowers have 2 stamens, attached in depressions on the disc. In female flowers ovary obovoid, 1-loculed. Fruit is drupe and globose.

Uses: Leaves are eaten as vegetable, slightly acidic, also leaves can be preserved for later use. Fruits are acidic and edible

Glinus oppositifolius (L.) Aug.DC.

 

Family: Molluginaceae

Synonym: Glinus cambessedesii Fenzl

Vernacular name: Kaippujeerakam

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Terrestrial

Distribution:  Tropics and Subtropics of Old World

Flowering and Fruiting: November-April

Key identification features: It is an annual prostrate herb, diffuse and sub-succulent, highly branched with thin stems. The flowers are small, whitish in colour. The fruit is an ellipsoid capsule slightly shorter than the tepals.

Uses: Used to improve digestion. The extracts of this species have anthelmintic activities and antioxidants comparable to those of standard products

Trigastrotheca pentaphylla (L.) Thulin

 

Family: Molluginaceae

Synonym: Mollugo pentaphylla L.

Vernacular name: Parpadakapullu

Habit: Herb

Habitat: Open areas and along banks of streams, also in deciduous forests

Distribution: Pantropical

Flowering and Fruiting: July-September

Key identification features: Ascending herbs. Leaves in whorls of 2-6, unequal, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, Cymes axillary and terminal. Capsules ovoid, membranous. Seeds many, reniform, areolate, reddish brown.

Uses: The leaf paste is applied to heal wounds of cattle which have been caused by tiger or leopard attacks.

Sida rhombifolia subsp alnifolia (L.) Ugbor.

 

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym: Sida alnifolia L.

Vernacular name: Kurunthotti

Habit: Shrub

Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, also in the plains

Distribution: Indo-Malesia to Pacific Islands

Flowering and Fruiting: September-December

Key identification features: Subshrubs with strong branching with simple, alternate leaves, obovate to elliptic-lanceolate. Flowers are axillary and solitary, with yellow petals. The fruit is a schizocarp, containing 7-10 mericarps.

Uses: The root is used in Ayurveda for rheumatism treatment, and the plant is employed as an anti-pyretic agent.

Abelmoschus angulosus Wall. ex. Wight & Arn

 

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym: Abelmoschus angulosus var. mahendragiriensis R.C.Misra 

Vernacular name:

Habit: Subshrub

Habitat: Moist deciduous and evergreen forests

Distribution: South India and Srilanka

Flowering and Fruiting: September-March

Key identification features: Its stem is green, often tinged with purple at the nodes, and covered in scattered rigid bulbous-based simple hairs. The leaves are alternate. They can be orbicular or 3-5 angular or lobed. Solitary flowers appear in the upper axils, later due to the reduction of upper leaves in long terminal racemes. The corolla is bright yellow with a dark purple center. The staminal tube has five teeth at the apex. Fruit is a capsule.

Uses: It is used as an ornamental plant due to its attractive yellow flowers and lanceolate leaves.

Urena lobata subsp. lobata L.

 

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym: Urena lobata var. genuina Miq. in Pl. Jungh.: 283 (1854), not validly publ.

Vernacular name: Caesar's weed,Common Purple Mallow

Habit: Undershrub

Habitat: Undergrowth in orchards, forests, waste places

Distribution:  Pantropical

Flowering and Fruitin: January_April

Key identification features: This subshrub-like herb grows erect. Leaf blades on the middle part of the stem are ovate while those on the distal part are oblong to lanceolate. The flower is reddish with 5 obovate petals covered in stellate puberulence on the abaxial side. The fruit is flattened and globose.

Uses: In some cultures, young leaves of Urena lobata may be consumed as a leafy vegetable after proper cooking.

Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex Corrêa

 

Family: Malvaceae

Synonym: Bupariti populnea (L.) Rothm. 

Vernacular name: Pravaras, Cheelanthi, Pooparutthi, Poovarasu, Porasu

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Grown as fence-posts and avenue tree, also in mangrove forests

Distribution: Native of Old World, tropics; widely naturalized in Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean islands and Florida

Flowering and Fruiting: March-June

Key identification features: An evergreen and fairly large, quick-growing tree. Leaves are simple, alternate, long-petioled and heart-shaped. Flowers are single or in pairs in leaf axil, bell-shaped, pale yellow with purple base, slowly changing to purple on withering. Fruits are globose capsules, which turn brown on drying.

Uses: Cultivated as a shade tree around Habitations. Young leaves and flower buds are eaten fried. Wood used for agricultural implements.