Munja
Scientific Name :
Premna serratifolia L.
Synonym(s) :
Premna integrifolia L.
Local/Common name(s) :
Munja
Family :
Verbenaceae
Habit :
Shrubs
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
May-June
Habitat :
Banks of backwaters
Endemic :
No
Status (IUCN) :
Least concern (LC)
Distribution :
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Australia, New Guinea, Philippines; Kerala: throughout
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine, Food, Fodder
Description (Morphology) :
Large shrub to small trees, to 7 m high. Leaves simple, opposite, estipulate; petiole 4-14 mm, slender, pubescent, grooved above; lamina 2.5-8.5 x 2-7.2 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, base acute, obtuse, subcordate or rounded, apex acuminate, mucronate, obtuse, margin entire or subserrate, glabrous above except along the appressed midrib, chartaceous; lateral nerves 3-5 pair, pinnate, prominent, puberulous beneath; intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, in terminal corymbose panicled cymes; bracts small; calyx small campanulate, 2 lipped, 5 lobed; corolla tube short, villous inside, lobes 5; stamens 4, didynamous, inserted below the throat of the corolla tube; anther ovate; ovary superior, ovules 4; style linear; stigma shortly bifid. Fruit a drupe, seated on the calyx, globose, purple; seeds oblong.