Chandigarh Forests
Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh
Department of Forest & Wildlife
|
Division
|
Angiosperms |
|
Class
|
Dicotyledons |
|
Subclass |
Gamopetalae |
|
Series |
Hypogynae |
|
Order |
Gentianales |
|
Family
|
Apocynaceae |
|
Genus
|
Carissa |
|
Species
|
opaca |
|
Botanical name:
|
Carissa opaca Stapf ex Haines |
|
Local/Trade Names: |
Jangli karaunda |
|
Conservation status: |
Wild throughout Himalaya. |
|
Digonestic features:
|
Spines 2-5 cm long; fruit purplish- black. |
|
Description: |
Evergreen, erect, bushy-diffused shrub, with rigid, spreading branches. Bark greyish-white. Spines 2-5 cm long, straight or forked. Leaves elliptic or ovate, 1.2-3 cm long, 0.8-2.2 cm broad, dark green and shining above. Flowers white, fragrant, in few flowered corymbose cymes. Berries sub-globose or elliptic, 0.6-1cm long, purplish-black. Seeds 2. |
|
Phenology: |
Fls.: & Frts.: July – April. |
|
Distribution: |
Himalayan tracts, drier parts of India, Andaman- Nicobar Islands; Sri Lanka, Myanmar. |
|
Where to see it: |
Medicinal Plant Garden. |
|
Uses: |
Fruits edible. Leaves rich in tannin (9-15%). Roots purgative. Wood used for making combs, spoons, and other such articles. Shrub widely used for fences. |
