Kudakapala
Scientific Name :
Holarrhena pubescens (Buch.-Ham.) Wall. ex G. Don
Synonym(s) :
Echites pubescens Buch.-Ham.
Local/Common name(s) :
Kudakapala
Family :
Apocynaceae
Habit :
Tree
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
April-October
Habitat :
Moist deciduous and dry deciduous forests, also in the plains
Endemic :
No
Status (IUCN) :
Least concern (LC)
Distribution :
Indo-Malaysia
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine
Description (Morphology) :
Small deciduous trees; to 8 m high; bark rough, pale brown, to 8 mm, exfoliates in small flakes; latex milky white. Leaves simple, opposite, 7-18 x 3-12 cm, broadly ovate, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute or acuminate, base obtuse, margin entire, glabrous or puberulent beneath, membranous; petiole 4-6 mm, pubescent, stout; lateral nerves 10-14 pairs, prominent, arched, puberulous; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, creamy-white, slightly fragrant, in terminal and axillary corymbose cymes, appear along with new leaves. Calyx lobes 5, 2.5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, ciliate, glandular within at base. Corolla salvar shaped, lobes 5, oblong, obtuse, as long as the tube, tube 1.3 cm long, puberulous, mouth with a ring of hairs. Stamens 5, included, attached towards the base of the corolla tube, anthers sagitate; disc absent. Carpels 2, apocarpous; ovules many in each carpel, style 2 mm long; stigma fusiform, bifid. Fruit of 2 terete elongated follicular mericarps connected at the tip and then free, 25 x 1 cm; seeds 8 mm, oblong, with tuft of silky brown hairs at the apex.