Duranta erecta L.

 

Family – Verbenaceae

Synonym – Duranta erecta var. alba (Mast.) Caro; Duranta erecta var. grandiflora (Moldenke) Caro; Duranta inermis L.; Duranta integrifolia Tod. 

Vernacular names – Duranta

Habit – Shrub

Habitat – Grown as garden plant, also getting naturalised

Distribution – Originally from Tropical America; now widespread throughout the world

Flowering and Fruiting – July-March

Key Identification Features – This shrub has spiny branches and simple, opposite leaves. The leaves are elliptic-ovate or obovate. Sometimes, the leaves are variegated with yellow. The flowers occur in simple or panicled racemes, both terminal and axillary. The corolla can be blue or violet, with or without two purplish stripes on the tube. The stamens are didynamous, and the ovary is globular with eight locules and eight ovules. The drupes are yellow or orange-yellow, globose, and completely enclosed by the fruiting calyx.

Uses – It is a garden plant