Digital Garden

Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland. ex Correa

പൂവരശ്

Family : MALVACEAE

Synonym : Hibiscus populneus L.

Common Names : Cheelanthi, Pooparutthi, Poovarasu, Porasu, Bhendi tree, Bendy tree, Indian tulip tree, Portia tree, Seaside Mahoe

Flowering Period : March-June

Distribution : Pantropical

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

Uses : Young leaves eaten as vegetable. The unripe fruits are eaten raw, boiled or fried as a vegetable. The heartwood is carminative. It is useful in treating pleurisy, cholera, colic and high fevers. The fruit juice is used to treat herpes. A leaf tea is taken as a treatment for rheumatism and urinary retention. A decoction of the astringent bark is used to treat dysentery and haemorrhoids, and a maceration of it is drunk for colds. The tough, fibrous bark yields a strong fibre used for cordage, fishing lines, coffee bags and for caulking boats. The bark is a source of tannins. Timber yielding and fuel wood.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 15 m high, bark dark brown. Leaves simple, alternate. Flowers bisexual, yellow, showy, solitary or in cymes, axillary or terminal; calyx cupular; corolla light yellow with dark purple centre; staminal tube 5-toothed at apex; ovary superior, 5-celled,. Fruit a capsule.