Syzygium caryophyllatum (L.) Alston

കരിഞ്ഞാറ

Family : Myrtaceae

Synonym : Myrtus caryophyllata, L., Syzygium caryophyllaeum sensu Gamble, Eugenia caryophyllaea Wight

Common Names : Cherujara, Kani, Karinjara, Njara, Pottinjaval

Flowering Period : February – January

Distribution : Western Ghats and Sri Lanka

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

Uses : Fruits are widely used in folk medicine for diabetes. It is also used for digestion disorders including gas (flatulence), bowel spasms, stomach problems, and severe diarrhea (dysentery) etc.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 6 m high; bark thick, reddish-brown; branchlets terete. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-8 x 1.3-3.5 cm, obovate or obovate-oblong, apex obtuse, obtusely acute or emarginate, base attenuate or acute, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous, brown on drying, pellucid-dotted; petiole upto 3 mm long, stout, glabrous; lateral nerves many, close, slender, prominent looped at the margin forming intramarginal nerve; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, white, 5 mm across, in terminal corymbose cymes, inflorescence branches moderately thick, ascending. Calyx tube 2-2.5 mm long, turbinate, no thick disc. Petals calyptrate. Stamens numerous, bent inwards at the middle when in bud, 2.5-3.5 mm long. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, ovules many; style 1; stigma simple. Fruit a berry, 5 mm across globose, black.