Digital Garden

Carallia brachiata (Lour.) Merr.

വല്ലഭം

Family : Rhizophoraceae

Synonym : Diatoma brachiata Lour.

Common Names : Vallabham, Fresh water mangrove

Flowering Period : December – May

Distribution : Indo-Malesia and Australia

Habitat : Semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains

Uses : Timber yielding. The juice from the macerated leaves is used in the treatment of fevers. The pulverized bark is rubbed on the body in the treatment of smallpox. The leaves and bark are used in local medicine to treat septic poisoning and itch.

Key Characters :

Carallia brachiata are evergreen trees; bark is dark grey, corky, furrowed; Leaves simple, opposite, obovate, margin entire, glabrous and glossy. Flowers bisexual, cream coloured, sessile, small, in short, trichotomous axillary branching cymes, calyx tube campanulate, valvate; petals reddish, inserted on a crenulate disc; stamens 10-16, inserted with them on the disc, one of each pair opposite the petal, slightly longer than the other filament, which is opposite to a sepal; filaments filiform; anthers small; ovary half inferior, 3-5-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; style subulate; stigma 4-lobed. Fruit is glossy pink to red round, 5 mm in diameter. Seeds are kidney-shaped