Premna serratifolia

Premna serratifolia L.

Family     :  Verbenaceae

Common Name  : മുഞ്ജ(Mal)

          गणकसिका(Hin)

                                  Headache tree(Eng)

     IUCN status          :   Least concern (LC) -

It mostly grow in moist sandy soil and scrub jungles along seacoasts and mangrove forests.During flowering season, it attracts a large number of butterflies and bees.

Large shrubs to small trees, to 7 m high. Leaves simple, opposite, 2.5-10 x 2-9 cm, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, base acute, obtuse, subcordate or rounded, apex acuminate, mucronate, obtuse, margin entire or subserrate, glabrous above except along the appressed midrib; lateral nerves 3-5 pair, pinnate, prominent, puberulous beneath; petiole 4-15 mm, slender, pubescent. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, in terminal corymbose panicled cymes; bracts small. Calyx small campanulate, 2 lipped, 5 lobed. Corolla tube short, villous inside, lobes 5. Stamens 4, didynamous, inserted below the throat of the corolla tube; anther ovate. Ovary superior, 2-4-celled, ovules 4; style linear; stigma shortly bifid. Fruit a drupe, seated on the calyx, globose, purple; seeds oblong.