Citharexylum spinosum L.

 
  • 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 IPNI) : 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 Urban district, Bengaluru Rural district, Davanagere district, Hassan district, Mysuru district, Udupi district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Shivamogga district
    • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
    • Tamil Nadu : Chennai district, Coimbatore district, Kanyakumari district, Tiruchirapalli district, Salem district
    • Madhya Pradesh : Hoshangabad district
    • Delhi : Delhi
    • Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh
    • Punjab : Punjab
  • Native : Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Islands, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Islands
  • Exotic/Native : Exotic
  • 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.
  • Read more :
  • Permalink : http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Citharexylum spinosum
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2026). India Flora Online. http://indiaflora-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Citharexylum spinosum. Downloaded on 22 March 2026.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)

Distribution District wise

India Distribution

World Distribution

Creative Commons License
India Flora Online by Herbarium JCB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.