• Family : VERBENACEAE
  (Verbena Or Vervain Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : SAGVAN FAMILY (सागवान फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : VERBENACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Citharexylum fruiticosum L.; Citharexylum cinereum L.; Citharexylum subserratum Sw.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Citharexylum spinosum L.
• Common name : Fiddle wood; Spiny fiddlewood
• Vernacular name : Parijatham (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Grown in gardens
• Comments / notes : Occasional in wild. Planted in gardens. Fragrant flowers. The name citharexylum (from the Greek - kithara meaning lyre, and xylon meaning wood) and the common name of fiddlewood is used to refer to the timber which make sounding boards and accesories for musical instruments.
• Flower, Fruit : November-September
• Collection Nos : KFP 998
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Tirumala Hills (Chittoor district), Deepalanka (East Godavari district)
  • Karnataka : Bengaluru district, Davanagare district, Hassan district, Mysuru district, Udupi district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Shivamogga district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
• Native : Caribbean territories
• World Distribution : Introduced and naturalized
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 - Flora of Bangalore district, Karnataka state; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; Manjunath et al., 2003 - Davanagere; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Pullaiah, T & Ali Moulali, D., 1997. Flora of Andhra Pradesh. Vol. 2.; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983.
• 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=Citharexylum spinosum. Downloaded on 3 August 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)