Dilip Walse Patil

Scientific Name : Duranta erecta L.

Category : Angiosperms

Status : Alive

Habit : A small shrub with branched tap root system. Stem : Square, herbaceous but woody below, erect, branched, solid, green. Leaves : Ramal and cauline, simple, opposite decussate or whorled, petiolate, obovate, ovate or elliptic, entire, with axillary thorns and unicostate reticulate venation. Inflorescence : Axillary or terminal racemes forming panicles. Flowers : Complete, bisexual, bracteates, bracts small at the base of the flowers, pedicellate, hypogynous, zygomorphic, pentamerous, bluish-white in colour. Calyx made up of 5 sepals, gamosepalous, slightly tubular, persistent, valvate, small, teeth 5. Corolla made up of 5 petals, gamopetalous, tubular with unequal lobes, three anterior lobes are larger than two posterior; quincuncial, corolla tube slightly curved, rotate, lilac or light-blue. Stamens 4, polyandrous, epipetalous, didynamous, posterior stamen is absent, sagitate, dithecous, basifixed, introrse. Gynoecium is tetracarpellary, syncarpous, superior, tetralocular, each locule with two ovules; axile placentation; style simple; stigma simple, bifid or 4 lobed. Fruit : Drupe fleshy with enlarged calyx with four 2-chambered stones, orange. Seeds : 8, obovate-oblong, smooth, glabrous. Flowering and Fruiting Time : Throughout the year. Significance : Commonly cultivated in the gardens and used as a border or hedge plant. Fruit juice is also known to be used against mosquitoes.