Aporusa lindleyana (Wight) Baillon (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Aporusa lindleyana (Wight) Baillon (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names
Sanskrit: Valaka.
Kannada: Sellegida, Saroli.
Tamil: Vittil.
Malayalam: Vittil.

Description: Small, dioecious trees up to 15 m tall; branchlets angular. Leaves alternate, elliptic-oblong, 6-15.5 x 2.8-7.2, acute or rounded at base, rounded or shortly acuminate at apex; midrib impressed and channeled above. Male flowers in axillary catkin like spikes, up to 8 cm, yellowish green; female flowers in long spikes up to 1.5 cm. Calyx 4-partite, persistent in female. Petals 0. Stamens 3-4. Ovary 2-locular, ovules 2 per locule; stigma 2, 2-fid. The fruit is a capsule, appearing subglobose and smooth, measuring 1-1.5cm in length, and dehiscent. It contains 2-4 seeds, which are ovoid, smooth, and lack an aril (exarillate).

Flowering & Fruiting: September – May.

Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Common in deciduous to evergreen forests ofWestern Ghats and coastal plains. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Fruits edible. Wood used in construction of huts. Leaves used as fodder. Root febrifuge, anticephalagic, used in treatment of jaundice, insanity and seminal loss.