Lepisanthes rubiginosa

Lepisanthes rubiginosa (Roxb.) Leenh., Blumea 17(1): 82 82 1969. (syn: Erioglossum edule Bl.; Erioglossum rubiginosum (Roxb.) Bl.; Erioglossum rubiginosum Radlk.; Erioglossum rubiginosum var. villosum Gagnep.; Lepisanthes balansaeana Gagnep.; Lepisanthes hirta Ridl.; Moulinsia cupanioides Cambess.; Moulinsia rubiginosa (Roxb.) G.Don; Pancovia rubiginosa (Roxb.) Baill. ex Kurz; Sapindus alternifolius Buch.-Ham. ex Wight & Arn.; Sapindus edulis Bl. (ambiguous synonym); Sapindus fraxinifolius DC.; Sapindus longifolius Buch.-Ham. ex Wight & Arn. (ambiguous synonym); Sapindus pinnatus Roxb. ex Hiern (ambiguous synonym); Sapindus rubiginosus Roxb.; Uitenia edulis Steud.; Uitenia stilaginea Noronha ex Cambess.; Uitenia stilaginea Noronha ex Miq.);

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Hooghly : perfect host tree : Attachments(15). 7 posts by 4 authors.

Found this small to medium tree on roadside.

Flowers are small, sweetly scented and a host of insects visit these flowers, some of them can be seen in the attached images.

I have been told that the fruits are small currant (or JAMUN) like and edible, though not very tasty, a bit sour + caustic.

Can this be Erioglossum edule Bl. (Lepisanthes rubiginosa (Roxb.) Leenh.)?

Photographs were recorded yesterday (17.4.13), in Hooghly.

Superb capture of the tree and all the beautiful insects 🙂

This is very interesting and informative.

This can be done in a very scientific way and infact it can be published too.

I have been saying this from time to time that the pollination studies on plants are lacking in India where as countries like China in past few years published so many new modes of pollinations. I published only one new mode of pollination so far (VERMICULIPHILY).

When I was in India, I was working on pollinator visitors of Guava as a time pass, and to my surprise there were more than 12 insects I could take pictures of. Guava is one of the cheap but nutritious fruits in India, can you imagine if there are no pollinators and then no guava in the market.

Some basic questions to look for answer would be, 1. what are the insect pollinator diversity of Guava? 2. does the pollinator visitation vary across the flowering period? 3. does the pollinator visitation vary across different years?

You will be surprised to know that in some countries a business of professional pollinators is coming up. They breed specific insects and help farmers pollinate their crops. And ofcourse, nothing comes for free.

Learned the new term VERMICULIPHILY, found your paper at – http://precedings.nature.com/documents/6295/version/1 and in other sites too. Very very interesting case of pheromones.

I think … is working on pollators for long, since long ago. For me it is too late!

…, this is Lepisanthes rubiginosa. The fruits are edible. I have tested . We have three species here in Odisha. L. tetraphylla, L. rubisinosa and L. senegalensis. Fruits of all plants are edible.

Thank you very much for the ID of this tree. Though “Bengal Plants” informs that this tree was rare at that time i have seen a few of them in that village, distributed on the roadside and also in the wild.

Also i could not find any Bengali name of this plant. But a local carpenter informs me that this is known as KAAKJAAM.