Tinospora cordifolia ?;
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DKV 10102011. Request for species id.: Mhow, Dist Indore, MP
Given by a family friend who said its name in Hindi is “neemglo” and that it must be grown at the base of a neem tree and it is a natural hypoglycemic – used by diabetics to lower blood sugar.
Tinospora cordifolia commonly called as Giloy Be Yes this should be Tinospora but cordifolia or sinensis, it needs to be confirmed. yes its Tinospora cordifolia other name T. glabra, some consider it synonym.. Tinospora sinensis has hairy leaves and bigger compare to this one.. T. sinensis leaves are hairy that it can be seen in the particular pic I assume. I may be wrong though. these pics are of T. cordifolia and not of T. sinensis please let us know whether the leaves are hairy or not. The pictures look very much like T. cordifolia. Stems and leaves of T. sinensis can’t be mistaken owing to the prominent lenticells and indumentum. I think I have seen lenticels in both as far as I can remember. We had both in our campus, back at home in WII !! The leaf surface and petiole is puberulent in sinensis. That cant be seen in such low resolution pics. I agree with you. But (back at home !!) I had both herbarium and live plants of these two species. But T.s. was a male one. The stems of this had tomentose hairs and lenticells which are more prominent and denser than that of T. c. Then I won’t blame eFlora of Pakistan much. It considers (although wrongly) all T. cordifolia (atleast of N W India and Pakistan) as T. malabarica Miers (now correctly T. sinensis) There are two cordifolias 1. Tinospora cordifolia (Willd.) Hook.f. & Thomson — Fl. Indica 1: 184 (1855).
[Menispermum cordifolium Willd. Sp. Pl., ed. 4 [Willdenow] 4(2): 826. (1806)]Â ANDÂ
2. Tinospora cordifolia Miers — Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, 7(37): 38. (1851).Â
1. is a valid name and eflora of Pakistan talks about about Tinospora cordifolia Miers. as synonym of T. malabarica, which is actually now T. sinensis. But did you notice two things 1. It does not list T. cordifolia from Pakistan yes sir I saw that I think this Tenospora codifolia. Do they develop aerial roots?
Where was the picture taken. It is a long shot, so it is not easy to say what the plant could be. Seeing the shape of the leaves, it could be Tinospora cordifolia. However the long stalks make me suspicious that it could as well be Air yam (Dioscorea bulbifera) |