• Family : FLACOURTIACEAE
  (FLACOURTIA FAMILY)
• Family (as per The Plant List) : Salicaceae
• Species : Scolopia crenata
• Basionym : Phoberos crenatus Wight & Arn.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Unresolved
• Common name : The 'Potato' Plum of Mysore
• Vernacular name : Kodali mara, Malekakkade (Kan.); Sekkada, Purushakesari (Tam.); Putta pondru (Tel.)
• Key identification features : Small evergreen tree up to 10 m tall. Bark is smooth, grey and rough. Stem is armed with spines. Leaves, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, with margin glandular, serrate-crenate. Flowers are white, fragrant, in lax, puberulous, 3-5 cm long. Berry shiny, green, globose. Seeds ovoid, 2-6.
• Habit : Tree
• Flower, Fruit : April-December
• Comments : Rare in evergreen forests above 900 m and also in sholas of Eastern Ghats. Bark is diuretic, locals use the young fruit to treat night blindness and flowers are used in treatment of eye diseases. (Franklin & Murthy, 2013)
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Distribution Locality : Kolli Hills (Namakkal district), Sirumalai Hills (Dindigul district) (Tamil Nadu State); Kadapa district, Tirumala Hill (Chittoor district) (Andhra Pradesh State)
• World Distribution : India to Malesia
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2002 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 1; Sankar,R.V., R. Kottaimuthu & K. Ravikumar (2009). Additions to the flora of Sirumalai Hills, Eastern Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 1(7): 379-381; Franklin Benjamin & G.V.S.Murthy, 2013. Flora of Sri Venkateswara National Park, Andhra Pradesh, BSI.; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Arun Singh R., Deepak Kumar, Raja K Swamy and Navendu Page (2016). Digital Flora of Eastern Ghats. http://easternghats.ces.iisc.ernet.in/plants.php?name=Scolopia crenata. Downloaded on 28 September 2024.

Description

Field Images