Scientific Name: Salacia fruticosa Wall. 

Synonyms: Salacia fruticosa Wall.

Unique ID: 122

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: Polypetalae                         

Series: Diciflorae

Order: Celastrales

Family: Celastraceae

Common Names

English – Salacia

Malayalam – ഏകനായകം

Description: Woody climbing shrubs; branchlets looped; young shoots puberulous. Leaves 3.8 – 7 x 2-4 cm, elliptic-ovate or elliptic-oblong, base rounded or cuneate, apex obtusely acuminate, coriaceous; petiole c. 5 mm long. Cymes axillary; pedicels 3-5 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed, minute; lobes minutely ciliate on margins. Petals 5, brownish-yellow, c. 2 mm across, orbicular. Disc fleshy. Stamens 3, inserted on the inner margin of the disc; filaments broad, curved. Ovary globose, minute, partially sunk in the disc, 3-celled; ovules 2-8 in each cell; style very short; stigma capitate, obscurely 3-lobed. Berry 2-2.5 cm across, globose, red. Seeds 1-3. Flowering and fruiting: February-May

Habitat:  Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, also in the sacred groves and plains

Distribution: Western Ghats 

Uses:  Used for medicinal purposes