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Acanthus ilicifolius L.
Synonym
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Acanthus ilicifolius subsp. orientalis
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Family
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Acanthaceae
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Local name
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Malayalam
- Chulli
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Flowering and fruiting period
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December-July
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Distribution
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Indo-Malesia
and Australia
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Distribution in Kerala
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Kottayam,
Alappuzha, Kasaragode, Kollam, Kannur, Thrissur Thiruvananthapuram,
Malappuram, Kozhikode, Ernakulam,
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Habitat
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Mangrove
forests and marshy areas along backwaters
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IUCN Status
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Least concerned
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Uses
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They are
used to treat rheumatism, neuralgia and poison arrow wounds.
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Key
Botanical Characters:
Gregarious
undershrubs, usually erect, rarely scandent, branching usually from older
parts; nodes with a pair of spines at the base of the petiole. Leaves
opposite-decussate, simple, variously shaped, elliptic, ovate-oblong, or
ovate- lanceolate, narrowed at base, spinous at apex, glabrous, coriaceous.
Flowers in terminal or pseudo-axillary, 8-20 cm long spikes; peduncle terete,
glabrous. Flowers sessile, ovate, acute, margin ciliate; bracteoles 2,
conspicuous, partly covered by the bract, lanceolate, persistent. Calyx
green, 4-partite, lobes glabrous. Corolla bluish-violet, with a short tube
closed by basal hairs; upper lip obsolete, lower lip broadly 3-lobed to
entire, recurved by the middle portion. Stamens 4, attached to the throat of
corolla tube, didynamous; filaments 13-16 mm long, stout, curved, more or
less flat; anthers aggregated around the style, connectives thickly hairy,
medifixed, bilobed, one lobe sterile, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary
2-loculed; ovules 2 in each locule on axile placenta; style slender, terete;
stigma bifid. Capsule ellipsoid or ovoid-oblong, glabrous, apiculate; seeds
4, compressed, orbicular, supported on short-hooked retinacula.
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