495

Justicia adhatoda L.

Synonym	:	Adhatoda arborea Raf.
Family	:	Acanthaceae
Local name	:	English - Malabar nut, Adhatoda Malayalam - Aadalodakam,  Pothadalotakam
Flowering and fruiting period	:	Throughout the year
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	In the plains, often planted
Uses	:	The plant is extensively used in the treatment of cough and other respiratory ailments.
Key Botanical Characters: Evergreen, much-branched perennial shrubs with a strong odour, 1.2-6 m tall. Leaves simple, opposite, elliptic-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute, margins entire, hairy, light green above, dark beneath, leathery. Flowers in compact, axillary, pedunculate spikes. Calyx oblong-lanceolat, 3-nerved. Corolla white with red or yellow-barred throats. Stamens 2, anther cells not tailed; filaments hairy at the base. Ovary pubescent; ovules 2 in each cell; style hairy towards the base. Fruit is capsule, clavate, longitudinally channelled and pubescent; seeds globular, glabrous.