Herbal plants – Mystique Hills

Strychnos wallichiana Steudel ex DC.

Strychnos wallichiana Steudel ex DC. (LOGANIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Balli kasaraka.
Malayalam: Valli-kanjira.
Tamil: Valli-kanjiram.

Description: Large woody climbers; tendrils bi-fid. Leaves ovate or elliptic, up to15 x 5 cm, rounded at base, acute or acuminate at apex, shining. Basal nerves 3; petioles up to 7 mm long. Flowers in terminal cymes, from old wood. Calyx lobes 5. Corolla lobes 5. There are five stamens with short filaments. The ovary is two-locular, with a short style and a capitate stigma. The fruit is a smooth, globose berry, approximately 10 cm across, turning yellow when ripe. It contains 3-4 flat seeds.

Flowering & Fruiting : January – May.

Distribution: India: Common in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Decoction of roots used in rheumatism, ulcers, elephantiasis, fever and epilepsy.

Xylia xylocarpa Roxb.

Xylia xylocarpa Roxb. (MIMOSACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Jambe.
Tulu: Chiruve.
Malayalam: Irumalla.
Tamil: Irul.
Telugu: Konda tangedu.
English: Burma iron wood.

Description: Large deciduous trees, 15-20 m tall with reddish-grey rough bark. Leaves bipinnate, pinnae 2; petiole 2.5-6.0 cm long with gland at the tip; pinnae 10-15 cm long; leaflets 3-5 pairs, often with an unopposed leaflet below the lowest pair, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 7-15 x 3-6 cm, rounded or acute at base, acute at apex, subcoriaceous, glabrous; petiolules ca 0.3 cm long. Flowers sessile, white, in globose peduncled heads, the peduncles axillary, fascicled or racemose. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 5-lobed. Petals 5, valvate, yellowish-white. Stamens 10, free; anthers tipped with stalked, deciduous gland. Ovary sessile; ovules many. The fruit is a sizable woody pod, falcate, measuring approximately 16 x 4.5 cm. It is flat and covered in a rusty tomentum. There are 6-10 seeds within, oblong-ellipsoid, about 1.5 x 1 cm in size, compressed, brown, and exhibit a smooth, polished surface.

Flowering : March – May.
Fruiting : May – January.

Distribution: India: Western Peninsula. N. Circars, Deccan, W.Ghats. Indomalesia.

Uses:

The wood, characterized by its reddish-brown hue, is hard, durable, and serves well for sleeper and building purposes, albeit challenging to work with. Referred to as Burma ironwood, it is a preferred timber for constructing boats, canoes, and is commonly employed in shipbuilding for elements such as knees, crooks, and keels. Widely used in the manufacture of carts, tool handles, ploughs, harrows, oil-presses, yokes, pit-props in coal mines, curbs of wells, wheels, sides of ladder, brake blocks for engines, paving blocks, electric poles, bridge construction etc.
A very good fuel wood. The charcoal from the wood is highly prized by iron smelters. Wood is fibrous and provides raw material for paper-pulp suitable for making wrapping paper. Bark anthelmintic, emetic, given in gonorrhoea, diarrhoea, ulcers, also used to stop vomiting; bark and seed oil antileprotic; seed oil used in rheumatism and piles.

Wrightia tinctoria R. Br.

Wrightia tinctoria R. Br. (APOCYNACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Beppalli, Kodamurki, Kodesige.
Malayalam: Aiyapala, Kotakappalla.
Sanskrit: Hvamovaka, Sveta kutaja.
Tamil: Nilapalai, Irumpalai, Veypale.
Telugu: Amkudu, Tedla pala.
English: Pala Indigo plant.

Description: Small deciduous trees up to 8-10 m tall with milky latex; bark scaly, smooth. Leaves opposite, variable, elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, up to 15 x 5 cm, acute or rounded at base, acuminate at apex; petioles ca 5 mm long. Flowers in lax terminal ca 6 cm long cymes, white, fragrant. Calyx glandular within, lobes 5. Corolla-tube short, lobes 5; throat of corolla-tube with fibriate conona scales in 2 rows. Stamens 5, inserted in the mouth of the corolla-tube; anthers sagitate. Ovary 2-locular; stigma 2-fid. The fruits consist of two separate pendulous follicles that are cylindrical, reaching up to 25 cm in length. When young, they cohere at the tip. The seeds are numerous, linear, 1-2 cm long, pointed at the apex, and accompanied by a deciduous coma, approximately 3 cm long, at the base.

Flowering & Fruiting: March– November.

Distribution: India: In deciduous forests, especially in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and peninsular India, Ascending to an altitude of ca 1300 m.
Sri Lanka, Timor.

Uses:

The flowers are utilized as a vegetable, and the tender leaves, pods, and seeds are also consumed. The wood finds extensive use in various turnery applications across different classes. It is made into cups, plates, combs, chessmen, pen-holders, pencils and bedsteadlegs. It is also used for carving, frames, spoons, small boxes and screens. It is used for making the celebrated Channapatna toys and for idols. The wood is suitable for matchboxes and splints, for making bobbins, engraving and printing-blocks, mathematical instruments and rulers. It is also suitable for stained wood inlay-work and for the manufacture of lacquerware articles.
The leaves yields a blue dye called Mysore Pala Indigo. The leaves are eaten by cattle, sheep and goats. In south India, the plant is used for green manuring rice fields. The handsome, jasmine-scented, star-shaped flowers are much esteemed by Hindus for offerings at temples. Bark – antidropsical, tonic, antidysenteric, used in piles, skin diseases; seed-aphrodisiac, astringent, febrifuge, antidysenteric, anthelmintic; bark and seed used in flatulence and bilious troubles.

Uses: An adhesive, useful for patching high pressure hose pipes, can be prepared from the latex. Flowers used in inflammation of cornea.

Wendlandia thyrsoidea

Wendlandia thyrsoidea (Roemer & Schultes) Steudel (RUBIACEAE)

Common names
Malayalam: Pavu.
Tamil: Kadamban.

Description: Small trees, 5-10 m tall; young branches pubescent. Leaves usually ternately whorled, elliptic-lanceolate, 5-10 x 2.5-4 cm, cuneate or acute at base, acute at apex, pubescent beneath; main nerves 8-10 pairs, prominent, pink on the young leaves; petioles 5-8 mm long. Flowers in 15-30 cm long dense pyramidal hirsute panicles, yellowish, fragrant. Calyx tube globose, pubescent, lobes 5. Corolla tube cylindric, hairy inside, lobes 5. white, pale yellow. Stamens 5, inserted near the mouth of the corolla; filaments minute. The ovary is 2-locular, with a bifid style and a fusiform stigma. The fruit is a globose, loculicidal capsule, measuring approximately 3 mm in diameter, pubescent, and crowned with the calyx teeth. Numerous very small seeds are present.

Flowering & Fruiting : December – May.

Distribution: India: Frequent in hills of Deccan, Western Ghats, to the Nilgiris, Pulney and Travancore. Sri Lanka.

Wattakaka volubilis

Wattakaka volubilis (L. f.) Stapf (ASCLEPIADACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Hegalu balli.
Tamil: Kurincha.

Description: Large twining shrubs with watery sap except milky in follicles; older branches ash-colored; often with lenticels; young branches green, slender, smooth. Leaves opposite, broadly ovate or subordicular, 6-15 x 4-12 cm, rounded or cordate at base, acuminate at apex, glabrous, softly pubescent; petioles 1.5-3 cm long. Flowers in 2-5 cm long lateral drooping umbellate cymes, green or yellowish green; peduncles arising from between the petioles. Calyx 5-partite with glands at the base. Corolla lobes 5, pale green. Corona single; lobes 5, fleshy, truncate, attached to the base of staminal column; pollinia 2, erect. Ovary 2-locular, style short, apex dome-shaped. The fruit consists of woody follicles, blunt at the apex, measuring 7-10 x 2.5 cm. They exhibit rugose striations and are glabrous. Numerous seeds, broadly ovate and 0.8 – 1.5 cm long, are flattened and pale yellowish-brown. The coma, approximately 4.5 cm long, is copious.

Flowering & Fruiting: March– November.

Distribution: India: Western Peninsula. Common in plains and hills, up to 1600 m. West Bengal, Assam. Sri Lanka, Java, Indomalesia.

Uses: Leaves, flowers and the rind of unripe fruits are boiled and eaten as a vegetable or used in curries, the cooking removes the bitterness and nauseating property of fruits. Plant yields a very strong fibre. Twining stems are used as substitute for ropes. Plant juice used as sternutatory; root and tender stalk emetic and purgative; leaf used in applications for boils and abcesses.

Vitex altissima L. f.

Vitex altissima L. f. (VERBENACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Navulaadi, Myrole.
Tulu: Myrole.
Malayalam: Mayilai.
Tamil: Maila.
Telugu: Nemili adaga.

Description: Large trees, 20-25 m tall with grey, scaly bark. Leaves 3 (rarely 5) foliate; leaflets sessile, lanceolate, the terminal is ca 15 x 5 cm, the lateral is ca 10 x 3 cm, acute at base, acuminate at apex, glabrescent above, pubescent beneath; main nerves numerous; petioles ca 6.5 cm long. Flowers in 12-20 cm long shortly pedunculate or nearly sessile cymes, clustered along the branches of large lax fulvous-pubescent terminal panicles, white tinged with blue or violet. Calyx copular, pubescent without, lobes 5. Corolla bilabiate, puberulous within, lobes 5. There are 4 didynamous stamens with short filaments. The ovary is imperfectly 2-locular, and the style is filiform with a bifid stigma. The fruit is a drupe, globose, approximately 1.2 cm in diameter, held by an enlarged flattened calyx. It is smooth and purple. The seeds are ovate or oblong.

Flowering & Fruiting: March – October.

Distribution: India: Common in evergreen, deciduous and dry forests of Deccan, Carnatic, W. Coast, up to 1300 m. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Wood grey to yellowish-brown, hard and close grained, does not split or wrap and polishes well. It is used for building purposes such as beams, columns, doors, windows and floor boards. Also used for furniture, cabinet work, agricultural implements, oil-mills, wheel work, tool handles and boats. Used for building temples in some parts of south India. A good fuel wood. The fruit is used in stomatitis, cardiac diseases, anorexia, blindness, leprosy, worm infestation and as digestive and carminative.

Vepris bilocularis

Vepris bilocularis (Wight & Arn.) Engl. (RUTACEAE)

Common name
Kannada: Manguppe.
Malayalam: Karagil.
Sanskrit: Krishna guru.
Tamil: Devadarom.

Description: Evergreen trees, up to 30 m tall; stem bark grey-brownish, lenticellate. Leaves alternate, digitally 3-folio-late, 16.5 – 25 cm long; leaflets elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic – oblong, 8.5 – 21 x 4 – 8 cm, slightly oblique at base entire, acute or acuminate at apex, gland dotted; petioles up to 1 cm long; secondary nerves up to 40 pairs, close parallel. Flowers in panicles, unisexual, white.Panicles terminal or from uppermost leaf axils, up to 10 cm long. Calyx saucer-shaped, 2-3 lobed, rarely sepals 0. Petals 2 or 3, imbricate, orbicular, glandular. Stamens 6, exserted, anthers dorsifixed, oblong. Pistillodes cylindric, 2-cleft above. The ovary is globose and has 2-4 locules. Staminodes are rudimentary, featuring effete anthers. The fruit is a fleshy drupe, either subglobose or oblong, measuring approximately 1 x 2 cm, with two locules. Inside, there are two seeds that are oblong, flattened, and brownish.

Flowering: March – May.
Fruiting : August – September.

Distribution: India: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of southern Western Ghatsup to 1500 m. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Uses: Wood is tough and used for helves and handles, cartwheels and spokes. Root decoction given in biliousness; wood used in eye and ear diseases; decoction of wood boiled in oil used in rheumatic swellings, asthma and leprosy.

Vateria indica L.

Vateria indica L. (Dipterocarpaceae)

Common names
Kannada: Dhupa, Ganapathi kai, Painimaram, Vella payin.
Tamil: Vellai kundi, Pinaymarum.
Telugu: Dhupada maru.
English: Piney varnish, White dammar, Indian copal, White dhup.

Description: Trees, up to 30 m tall; bark smooth, white to grey, blotched with white and green, peeling off in thick, round flakes; branchlets and inflorescence stellate-canascent. Leaves ovate or oblong or elliptic-oblong, up to 25 x 10 cm, cordate or rounded at base, obtuse or acuminate at apex, coriaceous, bright red when young; lateral nerves slender; petioles up to 4 cm long; stipules obliquely lanceolate, acute. Flowers in large terminal or lateral corymbose panicles, white, fragrant. Calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, obtuse, canascent on both surfaces. The petals, numbering 5, are elliptic-oblong and obtuse, spreading in arrangement. There are 40-50 stamens with nearly sessile anthers, and the connective is muticous. The ovary is tomentose. The fruit is a capsule, ovoid-ellipsoid, or oblong, measuring approximately 4.5 cm in length, brown, and 3-valved.

Flowering: January – April.
Fruiting: May – July.

Distribution: India: Evergreen forests of the Western Ghats up to 1300 m. Karnataka Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Uses:

The semi-solid fat, commonly referred to as “Pinay tallow,” “Malabar tallow,” or “Dhupa fat,” extracted from the dried kernels of the seeds, is employed in the production of candles and soaps. It is used for edible purposes after refining. It is used in confectionary and as an adulterant of ghee. Wood greyish brown, rough, much in demand in plywood and veneer industry; also used for making tea-chests, trunks, ammunition boxes, flooring and other interior fittings. It can also be used for railway sleepers. The heartwood can be used for shuttering, centering and scaffolding and for making oars, masts etc. The gum resin known in trade as ‘Pinay resin’, ‘White dammar’ or ‘Dupa’ is used in varnish industry and for making incense.
It is additionally utilized in setting gold ornaments and caulking boats. The wood is deemed reasonably suitable for paper pulp. The oil-cake, remaining after oil extraction, serves as a valuable manure, particularly in coffee plantations. It is extensively planted as an avenue tree. Bark alexipharmic, bechic, used in dysentery, leprosy, hemicrania, tuberculous glands, boils, ringworm, anaemia, ear diseases, urinary discharges, skin eruptions, ulcers, wounds; fruit (fatty oil) and resin used in rheumatism; resin known as “Dammar resin” is considered tonic, carminative, expectorant, used in chronic bronchitis and throat troubles, diarrhoea, piles and amenorrhoea. It enters into an ointment used for carbuncles and is a good emollient for plasters and ointment bases.

Vatica chinensis L.

Vatica chinensis L. (DIPTEROCARPACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Uggalu dhupa.
Malayalam: Adakka payin, Vella payin.
Tamil: Vella payin.

Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 30 meters, with a dense and spreading crown. The bark is smooth and pale grey, while the young shoots and flowers are covered in a fine down (lipidote). The leaves are elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, measuring up to 25 x 11 cm, with a rounded base and tapering to a subulate acumen at the apex. There are 10-14 pairs of lateral nerves. Flowers in axillary ca 30 cm long panicles yellowish white. Calyx lobes 5, ovate-deltoid to lanceolate, acute, pubescent. Petals 5, oblong. Stamens 15 in 2 rows, anthers shortly apiculate. Ovary covered with large, shallow pits; stigmas densely papillose; obscurely 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, indehisent, subglobose, up to 2.5 cm across, with 3 obscure, loculicidal furrows, brown, puberulous, attached to the spreading accrescent sepals.

Flowering: February – March.
Fruiting: June.

Distribution: India: In evergreen forests of Western Ghats along streams at low elevation. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Wood reddish brown, hard, durable, withstands water submersion and used for building piles etc. The transparent yellow resin obtained from wood is used in the manufacture of varnishes.

Trewia polycarpa Benth.

Trewia polycarpa Benth. (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names
Malayalam: Pambara kumbil.
Tamil: Ana-thuvarai.

Description: Trees up to 15 m tall. Leaves subopposite, broadly ovate, up to 20 cm long and often as broad as long, truncate or cordate at base, acuminate at apex; petioles up to 7.5 cm long. Flowers appearing before the leaves. Male flowers in short racemes; female in many-flowered, up to 7.5 cm long racemes. The ovary has 2 cells, and the styles are long, covered with papillae. The drupes have a thin, loculicidally dehiscing pericarp, are globosely ovoid, approximately 1.3 cm in diameter, and densely tomentose. The seeds are rounded at both ends.

Flowering & Fruiting : March – July.

Distribution: India: Western Ghats and West Coast in wet places and along streams. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Endemic.

Uses: Wood soft, used for drums and for the carving images.