Premna barbata

Premna barbata Wall. ex Schauer (syn: Gumira barbata (Wall. ex Schauer) Kuntze; Premna barbata var. anodon C.B.Clarke; Premna calycina Haines);

Pakistan to Myanmar as per WCSP;

Common name: Bearded Premna • Hindi: Lammar, Karadi, Bakaar • Khasi: Dieng-phouri • Malayalam: गिनेरी Gineri • Sanskrit: Vasuka • Urdu: Ganhila

Shrub or small tree about 15-25 ft tall. Bark grayish brown, rough and softly corky outside, inside greenish white mottled with brown, branches and branchlets quadrangular, young parts pubescent and glabrous when mature. Leaves simple opposite, lanceolate-ovate or elliptic, 4-18 x 2-10 cm across, base rounded or obtuse, margins slightly serrate, distantly cuspidate serrate towards apex, apex acuminate to acute, chartaceous, aromatic, dark green above, slightly pubescent when young and glabrous when mature and slightly paler beneath, lateral veins 4-6 on either side of the midvein, veins impressed above and prominent beneath, petiole slender, stout, canaliculated about 3-6 cm long, exstipulate. Inflorescence terminal corymbose panicles, dichotomously or trichotomously branched, about 4-8 cm across, peduncles flattened, pubescent, obtusely quadrangular, about 3-5 cm long, bracts linear, deciduous, about 1-2 mm long, Flowers numberous, bisexual, zygomorphic, pedicel about 1-2 mm long, calyx cupular 4 toothed, about 2 mm long, teeth linear, about 0.3 mm long, slightly pubescent outside, corolla infundibular, 4 lobed, 2 lipped, about 3-4 mm long, lobes oblong, apex obtuse about 3 mm long, glabrous outside, greenish white, corolla tube almost the same length as the calyx, densely pubescent in the throat, stamens 4, didynamous, filaments glabrous, filiform, glabrous, about .5-2 mm long, anthers globose, 2 loculed, about 0.5 mm long, ovary obovoid, about 1 mm across, style filiform, stigma bi-lobed, Fruit drupaceous, succulent, subglobose, obscurely verrucose, 4-5 mm in diameter, green and purplish black when ripe, seeds nonendospermous.

Forest slopes, near streams and pools at an altitude of about 500-5000 ft.

Local Distribution: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.

Global Distribution: Asia: Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan

(Attributions- Ganeshaiah, K. N., UAS, Bangalore, India. Kailash, B. R., UAS & ATREE, Bangalore, India. Indian Bioresource Information Network (IBIN), Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi from India Biodiversity Portal)