421
Cleistanthus collinus (Roxb.) Benth. ex
Hook.f.
Synonym
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Cleistanthus collinus
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Family
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Euphorbiaceae
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Local name
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Malayalam- Odaku
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Flowering and fruiting period
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December-November
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Distribution
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India and Sri Lanka
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Distribution in Kerala
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Palakkad, Malappuram, Thrissur,
Wayanad
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Habitat
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Deciduous forests
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Uses
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Also known as Oduvanthalai in
Tamil is the most commonly encountered plant poison in southern India. The
leaves are used for poisoning humans (suicide or homicide) and animals
(cattle and fish) and as an abortifacient, especially in rural south India
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Key botanical characters:
Deciduous trees, to 15 m high;
bark dark brown, nearly black, rough, flaking off in rounded thick scales,
blaze red; branchlets, terete. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous; stipules
lateral, linear; petiole to glabrous, slender; lamina 3 elliptic,
suborbicular, obovate or acute, apex round, retuse or apiculate, margin
entire, glabrous, glaucous beneath, chartaceous; lateral nerves 4-8 pairs,
pinnate, slender, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers
unisexual, yellowish-green, in glomerules borne on main leafy branches and
short lateral branchlets; the male 3-5 flowered; females upto 3 flowers;
bracts subulate; male flowers: pedicels puberulous, calyx tube shortly
obconic, lobes 5, occasionally 6, triangular-oblong or lanceolate-oblong,
adpressed fulvous pilose outside; petals 5, linear; disc annular, shallowly
lobed, glabrous; staminal column anthers oblong; pistillode ovoid; female
flowers: pedicel grey-pilose; calyx tube obconic, long; sepals
triangular-lanceolate, scattered grey-pilose outside; petals subulate; disc
shortly cupular-annular; ovary superior, , subglobose, glabrous; styles
almost free or basal column shortly to deeply bifid above, recurved. Fruit a
capsule, , subglobose or wide oblong, truncate at apex, shallowly 3 lobed and
3-angled, glossy, glabrous, black or dark brown when dry; seeds 3, globose,
black; pedicels
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