Aporosa cardiosperma (Gaertn.) Merr.

വെട്ടി

Family : EUPHORBIACEAE

Synonym : Aporosa lindleyana (Wight) Baill.

Common Names : Aechil, Eachil, Kotili, Ponvetti, Vetti

Flowering Period : December-June

Distribution : Peninsular India and Sri Lanka

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

Uses : Fresh root decoction is given to drink with a piece of juggery to cure headaches.

Key Characters :

Evergreen trees, to 15 m high; bark 6-8 mm thick, greyish-brown, vertical striations shallow, brittle; branchlets terete, glabrous. Leaves simple, attenuate, bifarious, 7.5-18 x 3-8 cm, elliptic-oblong, elliptic, oblong or ovate-oblong, base acute, obtuse or round, apex acuminate or obtusely acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, coriaceous; stipules lateral, lanceolate, cauducous; petiole 10-20 mm long, stout, grooved above, glabrous; lateral nerves 7-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, faint. Male flowers: yellow, solitary or clustered in axillary spikes of 1-3.5 cm long; bracts ovate, ciliate, flowers 1-3 in each bract; tepals 4, ovate, ciliate; stamens 2-3, from the centre of the flower; filaments free; anthers didymous. Female flowers: pale green, 3-8 together, in densely tomentose small racemes; pedicellate; bracts concave, ciliate, imbricate; tepals 4, larger than males; ovary superior, flask-shaped, thinly hispid; 2-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; styles 2-3, connate into a column; stigmas 2, small, plumose, spreading, recurved. Fruit a capsule 10-12 mm across, globose, yellow, glabrous, pointed with the style; aril orange-yellow; seed one, brown, planoconvex.