Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Voigt, Hort. Suburb. Calcutt. 152. 1845; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2(7): 1296. 1925 (repr. ed. 2: 907. 1957); G.L. Webster in Allertonia 3: 287. 1984. Phyllanthus virosus Roxb. ex Willd., Sp. Pl. ed. 4, 4: 578. 1805. Flueggea microcarpa Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 12: 580. 1826; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 328. 1887. Securinega virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Baill. in Adansonia 6: 334. 1866. S. microcarpa (Blume) Pax & K.Hoffm. ex Aubrev., Fl. Forest. Sudano-Guin. 190. 1950.


Hindi: Dalme, Patala; Kan.: Bili-horli, Gada hallae; Mar.: Pandhar-palli, Perinclavu; Nep.: Darim Pate, Phalame; Tam.: Irubulai, Karumpoola-chedi, Varadbula.

Shrubs (often a straggler) or trees, 1 - 8 m tall, entirely glabrous. Leaves elliptic, oblongelliptic to obovate or orbicular, acute, obtuse, rounded or cuneate at base, entire or occasionally undulate along margins, rounded, emarginate, obtuse to acute or apiculate at apex, 1.5 - 7 x 1 - 4 cm, chartaceous to membranous; lateral nerves 5 - 9 pairs; petioles 2 - 10 mm long. Inflorescences axillary, the male glomerules 20 - 40-flowered, the females up to 10-flowered. Male flowers: pedicels 1.5 - 5 mm long, filiform; sepals 5, ovate-elliptic, obovate or oblong, 0.8 - 1.5 x 0.5 - 1 mm; disc glands 5, ca 0.3 mm in diam.; stamens 5; filaments 1 - 2 mm long; anthers ellipsoid to suborbicular, 0.3 - 0.5 mm long; pistillode 1 - 1.5 mm long. Female flowers: pedicels 2 - 3 mm long; sepals 5, ovate-triangular or elliptic, 0.5 - 1 x 0.4 - 0.8 mm; disc annular, entire, ca 1 mm across; ovary subglobose or depressed, ca 0.5 mm in diam.; styles 0.7 - 1.5 mm long. Fruits subglobose, baccate or capsular, 2 - 2.5 x 3 - 6 mm, whitish, brown when dry, 3-locular, thin-walled; pedicels 3 - 5 mm long; seeds plano-convex, faintly reticulate, 2 – 2.5mm across, brown.

Fl. & Fr. Feb. - Sept.

Distrib. India: Deciduous, semideciduous, evergreen or monsoon forests, scrubs, Khair- Sissoo forests, coastal forests, up to 2000 m altitude. Throughout India, including Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Widespread in tropical Asia, Africa, Australia and Polynesia.

Notes. Chromosome numbers: n = 8 (Sanjappa & Sathyananada, Taxon 28: 394. 1979), 2n = 26 (Gajapathy, Sci. & Cult. 28: 375 - 376. 1962) and 2n = 48 (Hsu, Taiwania 14: 11 -27. 1968).





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