• Family : FABACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : PALASH FAMILY (पलाश फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LEGUMINOSAE
• Subfamily : Faboideae
• Synonym(s) : Glycine abrus L.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Abrus precatorius L.
• Common name : Indian Liquorice, Jeguirity, Bead Vine, Black-Eyed Susan, Buddhist Rosary Bead, Crab's eye, Indian liquorice, Rosary pea, Wild liquorice
• Vernacular name : Gunci, Rati, Rakti, Gaunchi, Ghungchi, Chirmiti (Hindi); Gurugunji, Gulganji (Kannada); Kundumani (Tamil); Guri vinda, Guriginja (Telugu); Kaicho, Kainch, Runjo, Lalgunj (Oria); Gunja (Sanskrit); Gunj (Marathi); Chuvannakunni, Kakani, Kunni, Kunnikuru, Gunj (Malayalam)
• Habit : Climbing shrub
• Habitat : Deciduous forests, also in the plains
• Comments / notes : On plains from coast in scrub jungles to 750m and common in forest edges and wasteland in bushes. There are seed coloured forms white, red and black, and dark blue. The White seeds are used for birth control by tribals.
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : All districts of Andhra Pradesh
  • Karnataka : Ballari district, Kolar district, Bengaluru district, Bidar district, Chikkaballapur district, Chitradurga district, Dakshina Kannada district, Davanagare district, Hassan district, Kolar district, Mandya district, Mysuru district, Raichur district, Tumakuru district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Tamil Nadu : All districts of Tamil Nadu
• Native : India
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tropical Africa
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; J.L.Ellis, 1987- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Hassan; Saldanha, 1984; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 - Flora of Bangalore district, Karnataka state; Seetharam et al., 2000 - Gulbarga; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; N.P.Singh, 1988- Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Manjunath et al., 2003 - Davanagere; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara
• 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=Abrus precatorius. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

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