Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MT057 : Gardenia latifolia Aiton

Plant Category : Tree

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 227

Synonym : Gardenia calyculata Roxb.; Gardenia enneandra J.Koenig ex Roxb., pro syn.; Gardenia latifolia Schltdl. ex Hook.f., nom. illeg.;

Plant Common Name : Jalkumbhi, Ghogar, Indian Boxwood, Ceylon Boxwood • Hindi: Papda, papura, paphar • Marathi: ghogar, papda, dikemaali, gogavli • Tamil: periya kumpai, kumbay, kambil, kottumarikalan • Telugu: Pedda Karinga, karinguva, pedda bikki • Kannada: kambi, kalkambi, adavibikke • Oriya: kurlu • Sanskrit: parpataki

Plant Family : Rubiaceae

Description : a small deciduous tree or large shrub, which is often growing on other small plants, which it eventually kills, the way Figs do. This gardening can be easily distinguished from the others by its large leaves. Bark is greenish-grey, peeling and leaving smooth, concave, rounded depressions. Oppositely arranged, or whorled leaves have very short stalks, and are oval to obovate, smooth, with a small hairy gland in the axils of the veins on the underside, 6-8 in long, by about 3 in broad. Flowers appear singly at the end of branches. Sepal cup is bell-shaped, segments or teeth very irregular. Flowers have salver-form, meaning starting from a narrow tube and suddenly flaring into a flat arrangement of petals. Flowers are white or pale lemon-yellow, orange when fading. Flower tube is about 2 inches long, with 5-9 obliquely obovate petals, about 1/2 as long as the tube. Stigma is club-shaped, thick, and fleshy, bipartite, segments bifid. Berry is even, nearly spherical, crowned with the whole limbs of the sepal. Flowering: April-July.

Plant Location in Melghat : Along stream and river margins and moist valleys in Akot and Chikhaldara ranges

Medicinal Use / Activity : rheumatism, cuts, wounds, Diarrhea, dysentery, remedy for indigestion in children;

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: Beta-sitosterol; hederegenin; oleanic acid; hederagenin; D-mannitol; oleanolic acid; spinosic acid;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (3):

Beta-sitosterol;

Oleanolic Acid;

Hederagenin;

Plant's Current Status : Not common

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Indian%20Boxwood.html - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/265178 - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286849882 - http://bbrc.in/bbrc/papers/pdf%20files/Volume%204%20_%20No%201%20_%20Jun%202011/5.pdf

Reference : ~ Chandra Prakash Kala; "Aboriginal uses and management of ethnobotanical species in deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh state in India"; Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2009); 5(20): 1-9 PMID :

~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass :
Order : Gentianales
Family : Rubiaceae - Madder family
Genus : Gardenia
Species : Gardenia latifolia Aiton

Gardenia latifolia Aiton
Gardenia latifolia Aiton
Gardenia latifolia Aiton
Gardenia latifolia Aiton
Gardenia latifolia Aiton