• Family : ANNONACEAE
  (Custard-Apple Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : SITAPHAL FAMILY (सीताफल फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : ANNONACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Desmos chinensis Lour.
• Vernacular name : Aitaala (Kannada)
• Habit : Shrub
• Comments / notes : Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests.
• Flower, Fruit : October-January
• Collection Nos : KFP 5236, KFP 7609, CJS 16815, CJS 16941
• Distribution :
  • Karnataka : Dakshina Kannada district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, Shivamogga district, Uttara Kannada district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Tamil Nadu : Coimbatore district, Tirunelveli district
• Native : India
• World Distribution : South India, Sri Lanka
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka; Cecil J. Saldanha, S. R. Ramesh (1984). Flora of Karnatka State vol. 1. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co, New Delhi; Balakrishna Gowda & A.N. Sringesh 2004 – Sringeri (checklist unpublished); Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 – Flora of Coorg district; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Desmos lawii. Downloaded on 2 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)