1253

 

Clerodendrum japonicum (Thunb.) Sweet

 

Synonym	:	Clerodendrum coccineum D.Dietr.
Family	:	Lamiaceae
Local name	:	English         - Japanese glory bower Malayalam  -  Chendumulla
Flowering and fruiting period	:	July to October
Distribution	:	Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam; Africa; Australasia; North America: South America.
Distribution in kerala	:	All districts
Habitat	:	Evergreen to deciduous forests and cultivated.
Uses	:	Used as medicine and ornamental.
Key botanical characters : Shrub 6-10 ft tall. Bark brown, branches and branchlets, stout, obtusely quadrangular, subgrabrous, nodes annulate. Leaves opposite, ovate-elliptic or ovate-cordate, 8-36 x 6-24 cm across, base cordate, margin minutely dentate-serrate, ciliate, apex acuminate, chartaceous, glabrous above and slightly pubescent beneath.Inflorescence terminal pyramidal thyrsoid panicle erect, scarlet red throughout, composed of 10-18 opposite cymes, peduncles stout about 3-6 cm long, bracts leaf-like, lanceolate, about 2.5 cm long. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, scarlet red, numerous, pedicel slender, about 1-2 mm long, calyx campanulate 5 toothed, teeth deeply divided, leaf like, lanceolate, apex acute, glandular, accrescent in fruit, corolla hypocrateriform, subactinomorphic, 5 unequal lobed, scarlet red, lobes obovate, spatulate, obtuse, pubescent, corolla tube narrow, pubescent, stamens 4, didynamous, exserted, filaments filiform, red, anthers oblong, bilobed, reddish brown, ovary bicarpellary, glabrous, 4 lobed, 4 loculed, style filiform, red, stigma shortly 2-fid, Fruit drupaceous globose, 1 cm in diameter, bluish black when ripe, fruiting calyx cupular, reflexed.