Dimorphocalyx glabellus, Navamaram, Kalpottan, siru kottai maram, tentukki, Pachhava, Weli wenna

 

Dimorphocalyx glabellus Thwaites
Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonyms: Croton ramiflorus J.Graham, Dimorphocalyx glabellus var. glabellus, Dimorphocalyx ramiflorus (J.Graham) M.R.Almeida, Oxydectes ramiflora (J.Graham) Kuntze

• Malayalam: Navamaram, Kalpottan
• Tamil:  siru kottai maram, tentukki
• Telugu: పచ్చవ Pachhava
• Sinhala:  Weli wenna

Description: Evergreen trees, 3-7m tall. Bark reddish brown, deeply furrowed, spongy. Leaves alternate; lamina  3-15 × 2-6cm, elliptic oblong, base rotund, entire, apex subacute, coriaceous, glabrous. Plants dioecious, 0.5-1 cm across, white; pistillate flowers solitary, male in few flowered axillary cymes. Calyx 5 lobed, cup shaped in male flowers; oblong, obtuse, accrescent in pistillate flowers. Corolla white, companulate, imbricate. Stamens 10-20 in 2 rows, on a short column, filaments thick; anther cells adnate to the thick connective, parallel, included.  Capsule 3 valved, hispid; fruiting calyx 0.7-1.5cm long, with a glandular pit near the tip. Seeds ovoid.
Habitat & location: Rare. Found in hilly areas. Photographed at Rapur ghat, Nellore - Dt., AP, India

Leaves paste applied to treat wound on nail, along with the leaves of Lawsonia inermis, Aloe vera, bulb of Scilla indica, fruit juice of Citrus limon and rhizome of Curcuma longa. [CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants]