Bridelia retusa (L.) A.Juss.

Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Equisetopsida > Malpighiales > Phyllanthaceae > Bridelia > B. retusa

Description: Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bark greyish-brown, blaze red; young trees armed with sharp thorns; branchlets thinly hairy. Leaves simple, alternate; stipules 7 mm long, lateral, lanceolate, deciduous; petiole 9-15 mm long, stout, pubescent when young; lamina broadly elliptic, oblong, elliptic-oblong, obovate or obovate-oblong, base round, obtuse, truncate, cordate or acute, apex obtuse retuse or subacute, margin entire or slightly crenulate, bright green and glabrous above(turning pinkish-brown before falling), glaucous and usually finely tomentose beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 14-25 pairs, parallel, prominent, dichotomously forked near the margin, intercostae scalariform, prominent. Flowers unisexual; greenish-yellow, sessile or shortly pedicellate, crowded in dense axillary or terminal, some times paniculate spikes often exceeding the leaves; bracts scaly; male flowers: 7 mm across, tepals 10, biseriate, valvate; outer tepals 3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, thick, truncate, shortly connate, acute, inner ones 2 mm, obovate, cuneate, obtuse, fimbriate; stamens 5, monadelphous, born on a gonophore, exserted; filaments 0.7 mm, anthers oblong; pistillode bifurcate; disc annular; female flowers: 6.5 mm across, tepals 10, biseriate, lanceolate, valvate; outer and inner 2.5 and 1.5 mm long, coriaceous, puberulous without, truncate, shortly connate, fimbriate, acute; ovary half inferior, globose, 2-locular, ovules 2 in each cell; styles 2, forked, 2 mm; stigmatiferous; disc with an inner, membranous, fimbriate corona enclosing basal part of ovary. Fruit a drupe, 7-8 mm across, purplish-black, seated on the persistent, slightly enlarged calyx, pyrenes 2, epicarp crustaceous; seed one in each pyrene.

Flowering and Fruiting: August-December

Uses: Ayurveda, Folk medicine, Siddha

Cultivation: Wild.

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org