Scientific Name: Putranjiva roxburghii Wall.

Synonyms: Cyclostemon racemosus Zipp. ex Span., Putranjiva sphaerocarpa Müll.Arg.

Unique ID: 177

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: –              

Series: –

Order: Malpighiales

Family: Putranjivaceae

Common Names

English – Wild Olive, Officinal Drypetes

Malayalam – പൂത്തിലഞ്ഞി

Tamil – Ponkalam

Hindi – Putranjiva

Description: Trees, to 20 m high, bark dark grey, whitish when young with horizontal lenticels; branches generally pendent; branchlets terete, brown or blackish, slender, pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate; stipule small, lateral, caducous; petiole 5-7 mm long, slender, pubescent; lamina 3.5-12 x 1.5-4.5 cm, elliptic-oblong, base oblique, apex shortly acuminate, acute or obtuse with retuse tip; margin serrate or serrulate, glabrous, dark green, shining, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, pinnate, slender, ascending, prominent, intercostae reticulate, slender, prominent. Flowers unisexual, small, yellow; male flowers: sessile, in axillary spikes, 2-2.5 mm across; pedicels 1.5-2 mm long, glabrous; tepals 3-5, oblong, puberulous without, ciliate, obtuse, imbricate; stamens 2-4, 1.5-2 mm long; filaments thick, more or less connate towards base; anthers ovate, hairy; female flowers: solitary or in 2 or 3, axillary; pedicel upto 15 mm long, puberulous; bracts lanceolate; tepals 5-6, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm, unequal, oblong, puberulous without, ciliate, acute; ovary superior, 3 x 2.5 mm, globose, tomentose, 3-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style 3, spreading, tomentose, often connate below into dilated into broad fleshy stigma; stigma crescent-shaped, glandular. Fruit a drupe, 1.3-2 x 1.5 cm, ovoid-ellipsoid, white tomentose; seed one, crustaceous; pedicels 6-25 mm long.

Habitat: Primary forest, Along river-banks, in shady valleys and evergreen forests

Distribution: Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka

Uses:  medicinal