Putranjiva roxburghii Wall.

പൂത്തിലഞ്ഞി

Family : EUPHORBIACEAE

Synonym :

Drypetes roxburghii (Wall.) Hurusawa

Common Names : Ekkoli, Poothilanji, Ponkalam, Puthrajeevi, Officinal Drypetes

Flowering Period : March-August

Distribution : Indo-Malesia

Habitat : Moist and dry deciduous forests, also in sacred groves

Uses : A decoction of leaves and fruit is taken for the treatment of liver complaints, colds, fevers and rheumatism. The hard, white seeds of the fruit are threaded into necklaces and also used for rosaries. Necklaces made from the seeds are traditionally given to children as a protection from disease. An olive-brown, fixed oil is obtained from the seed. It is used for burning. The wood is sometimes used for construction, turnery, tool handles.

Key Characters :

Trees, to 20 m high, bark dark grey, whitish when young with horizontal lenticels; branches generally pendent; branchlets terete, brown or blackish, slender, pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate; stipule small, lateral, caducous; petiole 5-7 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 3.5-12 x 1.5-4.5 cm, elliptic-oblong, base oblique, apex shortly acuminate, acute or obtuse with retuse tip; margin serrate or serrulate, glabrous, dark green, shining, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, pinnate, slender, ascending, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, prominent. Flowers unisexual, small, yellow; male flowers: sessile, in axillary spikes, 2-2.5 mm across; pedicels 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous; tepals 3-5, oblong, puberulous without, ciliate, obtuse, imbricate; stamens 2-4, 1.5-2 mm long; filaments thick, more or less connate towards base; anthers ovate, hairy; female flowers: solitary or in 2 or 3, axillary; pedicel upto 15 mm long, puberulous; bracts lanceolate; tepals 5-6, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm, unequal, oblong, puberulous without, ciliate, acute; ovary superior, 3 x 2.5 mm, globose, tomentose, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style 3, spreading, tomentose, often connate below into dilated into broad fleshy stigma; stigma crescent-shaped, glandular. Fruit a drupe, 1.3-2 x 1.5 cm, ovoid-ellipsoid, white tomentose; seed one, crustaceous; pedicels 6-25 mm long.