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Macaranga peltata (Roxb.) Müll.Arg.

Synonym	:	Macaranga flexuosa Wight
Family	:	Euphorbiaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam - Uppothy, Vatta
Flowering and fruiting period	:	January-February
Distribution	:	India, Sri Lanka and Andamans
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Moist deciduous and secondary forests, also in the plains
Uses	:	Roots, bark and leaves are commonly used internally as a decoction to treat stomach-ache, dysentery, haemoptysis, cough and fever. The leaves are applied externally to wounds, ulcers, sores and boils.
Key Botanical Characters:  Dioecious trees; bark surface pale, greyish-brown mottled with white, smooth, lenticellate; brittle; exudation red, gummy; branchlets thick, terete, glaucous. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate-orbicular, apex acute or acuminate, base peltate, margin entire. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow. Male flowers: in axillary, much branched, dense, tomentose, panicles; stamens 2-8, free, shortly connate below, exserted. Female flowers: in panicles simpler than in males, branches racemes with larger bracts; tepals 4, basally connate at base. Ovary superior, 2-6 celled, densely glandular, style lateral, stigma sessile. Fruit a capsule, globose, hairy; seed one, black.