1156

 Vitex leucoxylon L. f.

 

Synonym	:	Vitex leucoxylon var. zeylanica Moldenke
Family	:	VERBENACEAE
Local name	:	Malayalam- Neernochi
Flowering and fruiting period	:	March-July
Distribution	:	Peninsular India and Sri Lanka
Distribution in kerala	:	All  Districts
Habitat	:	long river banks in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests
Uses	:	he root and the bark are astringent and roots are used as a febrifuge
Key Botanical Characters: Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bark yellowish-grey or greyish-brown, rough. Leaves opposite, decussate, leaflets 3-5, whorled, 2.5-16 x 1.5-4 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, base acute or attenuate, apex acute or obtusely acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, puberulent beneath, coriaceous; rachis 5.5-8.5 cm, slender, swollen at the base; lateral nerves 5-14 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, in axillary corymbose cymes, to 17 cm long; pedicels to 2 mm. Calyx cupular, sparsely appressed puberulent; tube 2 mm long, 5-toothed. Corolla white, bilipped, purplish-pubescent in the throat; lobes 5. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted below the throat of the corolla tube, slightly exserted; filaments thickened and villous towards the base; anthers purple. Ovary superior, globose; style filiform; stigma bifid. Fruit a drupe, 1.2-2 cm long, obovoid, purple-black, fleshy.