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.