Gnetum ula Brongn. (GNETACEAE)
Common names
Tulu: Nokate.
Tamil: Ana-pendu.
Description: A sizable, persistent, sturdy climber characterized by thick, brown, rough bark with a scaly texture. The branchlets are slender, with thickened nodes. Leaves opposite, ovate-oblong or elliptic, 7-18 x 4-10 cm, obtuse or shortly apiculate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, longitudinally wrinkled when dry; main nerves 6-8 pairs; petioles ca 2 cm long. Flowers monoecious, whorled in the axils of cupular bracts in panicled spikes; bracts of the male flowers closely imbricate, those of the female interrupted. Perianth narrowly clavate, entire or valvately 2-fid in female flowers. Male flowers: staminal column adnate to the base of the perianth, apex exserted; anthers of 2 distinct cells, sessile. Female flowers: ovule ovoid or globose; styliform tube exserted; stigma 3-fid. Fruit a drupe, in spikes of 8-25 cm long, olive shaped or ellipsoid, 2.5 – 4.0 cm long, reddish-orange when ripe, obtuse at the apex, pulp intermixed with many tender spicules. Seed solitary, ellipsoid, hard
Flowering & Fruiting: December – June.
Distribution: India: W. Peninsula, Sikkim, Assam, Andaman Islands. Common in evergreen forests, up to 1500 m. Malaya peninsula, Archipelago, China Seeds are roasted and eaten.