Parathola

Scientific Name :
Mussaenda frondosa L.
Synonym(s) :
Gardenia frondosa (L.) Lam.
Local/Common name(s) :
Parathola, Vellila
Family :
Rubiaceae
Habit :
Shrubs
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
April-May
Habitat :
Moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains
Endemic :
Yes
Status (IUCN) :
Distribution :
Peninsular India
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine
Description (Morphology) :

Climbing shrubs; branches terete to compressed, moderately to densely pale red sericeous to hirsute becoming glabrescent, red-brown or brown, rather densely lenticellate. Leaves opposite; petiole 4-10 mm, densely sericeous; blade drying thinly papery or leathery, adaxially dark green to brownish green, abaxially pale green to yellowed, broadly elliptic, elliptic-oblong, ovate, or oblanceolate, 8-15 × 3-8 cm, both surfaces sparsely strigillose on lamina and strigose to sericeous on principal veins, base acute, obtuse, or rounded, apex acute to caudate-acuminate; secondary veins 7-10 pairs, tertiary venation visible and reticulate; stipules persistent, triangular, 5-10 mm, densely strigose to pilose, deeply 2-lobed, lobes lanceolate to narrowly triangular, acute to acuminate. Inflorescences congested-cymose becoming lax with lateral axes elongating markedly, 4-8 × 8-20 cm with lateral axes to 8 cm, sparsely to moderately pubescent with 2 types of pubescence, mixed strigillose to appressed puberulent and hirsute to villous, pedunculate or sessile and 3-partite; peduncles 1-3 cm; bracts triangular or elliptic, 4-10 mm, usually 2- to multifid, acute to acuminate; pedicels 1-6 mm. Flowers pedicellate, biology not noted. Calyx with hypanthium portion ellipsoid, 3-4 mm, strigose to sericeous; lobes narrowly triangular to narrowly ligulate, 7-12 mm, hirsute, acute to acuminate, with 1 lobe of 1-4 flowers per inflorescence sometimes expanded into calycophyll, blade elliptic-oblong to ovate, 6-8 × 2.5-5 cm, both surfaces glabrescent on lamina and strigillose on principal veins, base acute to cuneate, stipe 10-30 mm, apex acute or acuminate. Corolla salverform, outside hirsute; tube 22-25 mm; lobes ovate, 6-7 mm, acuminate. Berry ovoid or ellipsoid, ca. 10 × 7 mm, strigose to glabrescent, calyx limb deciduous.

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