Morinda citrifolia L. (RUBIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Maddi, Paavate, Tagachae.
Malayalam: Katta-pitalavam, Mannanatti.
Sanskrit: Ashyka.
Tamil: Minaamaram, Manjanatti.
Telugu: Maddi, Togaru.
Description: Small trees, up to 6 m tall with greyish bark; branchlets terete. Leaves opposite, elliptic, 10-12 x 7-12 cm, acuminate or obtuse at base, acute at apex, bright green, glabrous, shining; main nerves 8-10 pairs; petioles ca 1.5 cm long; stipules broad, obtuse. Flowers in dense ovoid ca 5 cm long leaf opposed solitary heads, white, scented. Calyx limb truncate, lobes 5. Corolla infundibuliform, lobes 5. Stamens 5; filaments hairy; anthers partly exserted. Ovary 2-locular; style slender; stigma tusiform. The fruit is a syncarpium, smooth and glossy, measuring approximately 2.5 cm in diameter. It turns white when ripe, and the pyrenes within are ovoid and compressed. The seeds are obovoid, with a diameter of 5 cm.
Flowering & Fruiting : July – November.
Distribution: India: Hills of south India and Andaman Islands, Darjeeling Terai and outer hills. Malacca, Maingay.
Uses: Wood yellowish brown, fairly hard, used for turnery and for making plates and toys. Roots source of ‘al dye’ used for dyeing cotton, silk and wool red, purple and chocolate shades; now virtually abandoned since the advent of synthetic dye stuffs. Tree is lopped for fodder. Grown as a shade tree and as support for pepper vines. Root cathartic; root and leaf febrifuge, used in gout; leaf tonic; fruit emmenagogue, used in lencorrhoea, sapraemia, asthma, dysentery, spongy gums and throat complaints.