Dilip Walse Patil

Scientific Name : Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br.

Category : Angiosperms

Status : Alive

Habit : Tall evergreen tree up to 18 m with bitter milky juice, glabrous except inflorescence. Stem : Bark grey rough and yellowish from inside, branches whorled, young branches lenticellate, when he bark is injured a milky juice comes out. Leaves : 4 - 7 in whorls, coriaceous, oblong - lanceolate, obtuse or bluntly acuminate, dark green above, pale and covered with whitish bloom beneath, base tapering, main nerves numerous, nearly horizontal, parallel, uniting in an intramarginal nerve. Inflorescence : Capitate cymes. Flowers : Small, fragrant, greenish white, in umbellate, branched many - flowered, pubescent capitate cyme, peduncles 2.5 - 5 cm long, pedicels very short, bracts oblong, pubescent. Calyx 0.3 cm, lobes oblong, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla tube 0.8 cm long, villous inside, mouth with ring of hairs, lobes cuneate oblong, rounded or sub-truncate at the apex, pubescent. Carpels pubescent. Fruit : Follicles 30 - 60 cm long and 0.3 cm in diameter, cylindric, pendulous in clusters, become completely averted after dehiscence. Seeds : 0.6 cm long, linear - oblong, flat, round with fringe of hairs at both ends. Flowering and Fruiting time : December - March, May - July. Significance : The tree is planted as an ornamental plant in gardens. The bark is used for treating asthma and heart ailments, fever and diarrhoea. The fruits are bitter in taste and are used as medicine against intestinal worms.