Vitex pinnata L.

കാട്ടുമയില

Family : VERBENACEAE

Synonym :

Vitex pubescens Vahl

Common Names : Aattumayila, Kattumayila, Kattumayilellu

Flowering Period : March-May

Distribution : Peninsular India and Sri Lanka

Habitat : Banks of streams in moist deciduous forests, also in sacred groves in the plains

Uses : A decoction of the bark is used to treat stomach-ache. A poultice of the leaves is used to treat fevers and wounds. The yellow-brown to dark-brown wood is fine-grained, heavy, very hard and durable. The timber, though not commercially important due to its small dimensions, is favoured locally for construction, household goods, tool handles, boats and implements.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 15 m high, bark thick, white; young shoot grey pubescent; branchlets 4-angled, lenticellata. Leaves 3-foliolate, sometimes 5-foliolate, opposite, estipulate; rachis 35-70 mm, slender, glabrous, grooved above, winged in coppice shoot, flattened; petiolule 7-10 mm, subsessile; lamina 7-16 x 1.8-4.9 cm, elliptic, lanceolate or oblanceolate, base acute, apex acuminate, margin entire or coarsely serrate, yellow gland dotted beneath, chartaceous; lateral nerves 8-22, pinnate, prominent, slender; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, cream with yellow palate, in lax axillary panicles of dichasia to 25 cm; calyx 4 mm long, yellow spotted without, 5 toothed; corolla 8 mm across, creamy, throat yellow, pubescent outside, 2-lipped, upper 2 and lower 3 lobed, upper lip 2 mm, acute, lower lip 4 mm, ovate, lateral lobes broadly oblong, subacute, puberulous and glandular; stamens 4, didynamous, exserted; anthers 0.7 mm; ovary 1 mm, superior; style 3 mm, filiform; stigma bifid. Fruit a drupe, 1.3 cm long, obovoid, supported by enlarged calyx; seeds 4.