Vernonia arborea Buch.-Ham. - ASTERACEAE

Synonym : Vernonia monosis Benth. ex Clarke

Vernacular names : Tamil: Karana, Sadagai, Shutthai.  Malayalam: Eerakatthira, Karana, Kadavari, Malanperuva.

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literatures

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Medium sized trees, up to 15 m tall.
Trunk & Bark : Bark brown; blaze blackish.
Branches and Branchlets : Young branchlets terete, tomentose.
Leaves : Leaves alternate, spiral, clustered at twig ends; petiole 0.6-2.6 cm long, subterete, tomentose; lamina 8.5-19 x 4-11 cm, obovate or broadly-obovate, apex acute or abruptly, shortly acuminate, base cuneate to acute, margin entire or sometimes distantly double serrate with alternate small and large tooth, chartaceous, tomentose beneath; midrib tomentose above; secondary_nerves 10-15 pairs, looped near margin; tertiary_nerves reticulo-percurrent.
Inflorescence / Flower : Flowers in heads of large terminal panicled cymes, purple.
Fruit and Seed : Achene, ribbed; 1-seeded, pappus uniseriate.

Ecology :

Occasional along margins of evergreen forests, up to 1900 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Literatures :

Trans. Linn. Soc. London 14: 218.1824; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 672.1993 (re. ed); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 257. 2004; Keshava Murthy and Yoganarasimhan, Fl. Coorg (Kodagu) 256. 1990; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 12. 1902.

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