Padathali

Scientific Name :

Cyclea peltata (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thoms.

Synonym(s) :

Menispermum peltatum Lam.

Local/Common name(s) :

Padathali

Family :

Menispermaceae

Habit :

Climber

Flowering/Fruiting Time :

Throughout

Habitat :

Semi-evergreen and evergreen forests, also in the plains

Endemic :

No

Status (IUCN) :

Distribution :

India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia; Kerala: throughout

Nativity :

Indigenous

Uses :

Medicine

Description (Morphology) :

Climbing shrubs; Leaves simple, alternate, peltate, ovate, apex acute or acuminate, base cordate,mnargins entire; 4-8 ribbed, pubescent below. Panicles to 20 x 7 cm, rachis pubescent; Fowers densely packed towards the branch tips, sessile, densely hairy. Male flowers 1.5 mm across; sepals hairy outside; petals glabrous. Female flowers smaller; sepal-1, hairy; petal-1, hairy; carpel one, densely hairy.