eChapters

Common name    :    English- Fever root
        Hindi- Ruwel

Family    :    Acanthaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a herb (fig. 79 a), often found in wastelands, cultivated land, waysides etc. sometimes in gardens also. The plant is widely naturalized in India.

General Characters
The plant is a tropical perennial herb, growing up to a height of 6.5 inches with hairy stem. The leaves are simple, opposite and elliptic-obovate with 4.10-1.8-4 cm in size. Flowers are blue or violet with 3-4 cm in long. The ripe fruits in a pod carry 7-8 seeds each in it. The plant flowers and bears fruits during June-February.

Common name    :    English- Rose
        Hindi-Gulab
        Odia- Golap

Family    :    Rosaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
It is a shrub (Fig. 78 a), commonly planted in gardens and also cultivated.

General Characters
The plant is a woody, perennial shrub. The leaves are borne alternately on the stem. In most species, they are 5-15 cms long, elliptic-lanceolate, pinnate with 3-11 leaflets. Flowers are usually white or pink, though in a species yellow or red with 5 cm across. The aggregate fruit of the rose is a berry like structure called a rosehip. The plant flowers during February-March.

        Odia- Jada/Gab

Common name    :    English- Castor bean
        Hindi- Arandi 
        Odia- Jada/Gab
        
Family    :    Euphorbiaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub or small tree (Fig. 77 a), often found in wastelands, fields, gardens and near villages. Also cultivated as a cash crop. It is widely distributed throughout the dry parts of India.
 
General Characters
The plant is a fast growing, sucking perennial tree that reaches the size up to 12 m. The leaves are 15-45 cm long, stalked, alternate and palmate with 5-12 deep lobes. The flowers are borne in terminal panicle like inflorescences of green or shades of red monoecious flowers without petals. The fruit is spiny, greenish capsule containing large and oval bean like seeds. The plant flowers and bears fruits during most parts of the year.

Common name    :    Shaving brush tree

Family    :    Malvaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a large tree (Fig. 76 a), usually seen in open forests often scattered through fields and over plains, besides on open rocky hillsides. It is distributed throughout Indian.

General characters
It is large deciduous tree, which grows up to 30-40 feet in height. The leaves at first are bright red turning fine green as they mature. Flowers are having silky rose-pink stamens topped with yellow pollen. The wood is interesting as well, showing strippings of greens, yellows, brown and white. The plant flowers during October-February.

Common name    :    English- False Asoka 
        Hindi- Ashok 
        Odia- Debadaru

Family    :    Annonaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
The plant (Fig. 75 a) is usually planted in gardens, roadside avenues and also cultivated throughout India.

General characters
The plant is a tall evergreen tree having slender and glabrous branches, growing up to a height of 25 feet. The leaves are narrowly lanceolate, glossy green, long with attractive wavy edges. Flowers are yellowish-green, star like structures that give the tree a peculiar hazy appearance. Seeds are smooth and shining. The plant flowers in March-April and bears fruits during July-August.

Common name    :    English- Wild leadwort
        Hindi- Chitrak 
        Odia- Ogni 

Family    :    Plumbaginaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub (Fig. 74 a), frequent in open places, scrub forests and among bushes. It is widely distributed throughout India.

Gerneral Characters
The plant is an evergreen shrub that reaches about 6 feet in native. The leaves are dark green, spreading and ovate in shape. Flowers are white, terminal, often panicled and grow as dense racemes. Individual flowers are up to ½ inch across. The plant flowers and bears fruits during September-April.

Common name    :    English- Date palm 
        Hindi- Khajur
        Odia- Khajuri

Family    :    Arecaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a tree (Fig. 73 a). It is commonly, wild or cultivated throughout India. It thrives from the plains to the coast in low-laying waste lands, scrub forest and water logged areas.

General Characters
It is a moderate sized dioecious tree which grows up to 4-10 m. in height and 30 cm diameter with a large crown and rough trunk covered with persistent leaf bases. The leaves are 3 m. long, gently recurved on 1 m petioles with spines near the base. The leaf crown grows to 5 m wide and 7-10 m tall containing up to 100 leaves. The inflorescence grows to 1 m with white flowers. The single seeded fruit ripens to orange-yellow. The plant flowers and bears fruits during May-October.

Common name    :    English-Yellow flamebouyant
        Hindi- Peela gulmohar 
        Odia- Radhachuda

Family    :    Fabaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 72 a), frequently planted in gardens, road sides etc. and widely distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a deciduous tree growing up to 15-25 m height with a trunk diameter of about 1m. The leaves are bipinnate, 30-60 cm long, with 16-20 pinnae, each pinna with 20-40 oval leaflets. The flowers are yellow, 2.5-4 cm diameter, produced in large compound racemes up to 5-10 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, red at first, ripening black and contain 1-4 seeds. The plant flowers during March-May and bears fruits during April-December.

Common name    :    English- Kewda/Screw pine
        Hindi- Gagan dhul
        Odia- Kia

Family    :    Pandanaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
It is a shrub (Fig. 71 a), wild in deltaic swamps of Mahanadi and other sandy coastal areas. Seen both in wild and cultivated in India.

General Characters
It is a bushy shrub, reaches up to 3-4 m in height. The leaves are closely spiral, spiny and leathery with fragrance. Flowers are pedicellate with stamens spirally arranged on the floral axis. Flowers have a sweet and perfumed odor.

Common name    :    English-Rice
        Hindi-Chawal
        Odia-Dhana
    
Family    :    Poaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant (Fig. 70 a) is a annual herb, and several varieties of this plant are largely cultivated all over the world, especially in Asian countries.

General Characters
It is a semi aquatic monocot plant. The plant grows up to 3-5 ft in height. It has long, slender leaves, 50-100 cm long and 2-2.5 cm broad. Flowers are produced in branches arching to pendulous inflorescence 30-50 long. The edible seed is a grain, 0.5-1.2 cm long and 2-3 mm thick. The plant flowers and bear fruits during September-January and also in April-May.

Common name    :    English- Sage Leaved Alangium
        Hindi- Ankol
        Odia- Ankula/Dhalanga
Family    :    Cornaceae
Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a tree (Fig. 69 a), commonly found in dry regions in plains and low hills and also found on roadsides. The plant is widely distributed throughout India.
General Characters
The plant is a tall thorny tree native to India. It grows to a height of about 3 to 10 meters. The bark is ash colored, rough and faintly fissured. The leaves are elliptic oblong or elliptic lanceolate. The flowers are greenish white, fascicled, and axillary. The berries are ovoid, ellipsoid, glabrous, smooth and violet to purple in colour. The plant flowers and bears fruits during February -June.

Common name    :    English- Water lily
        Hindi- Kanval
        Odia- Kain

Family    :    Nymphaeaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
The plant (Fig. 68 a) is an aquatic perennial herb, commonly found in lakes and ponds. It is distributed throughout the warmer parts of India.

General Characters
It is an aquatic plant having erect perennial root stocks that anchor it to the mud in the bottom of the water bodies. Leaves vary from being elliptic-oval to almost circular 15-26 cm across, fine hairs on upper side and always remain at floating stage. Flowers are mostly white, occasionally pink or red reaching up to 15 cm in diameter. The plant flowers and bears fruits throughout the year.

Common name    :    English- Shoo-fly plant
        Hindi- Popti

Family    :    Solanaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
The plant is a herb (Fig. 67 a), commonly found in fallow land, naturalized in waste places and near dwellings. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It s an erect annual plant reaches up to 3-8 feet in height and are about half as wide. The leaves are large, alternate, reaching up to 1 feet long and somewhat resembles Datura leaves. Flowers are pale blue or blue purple with white centre. Fruits are berry, brown or yellow when matures, up to 2 cm in diameter. The plant flowers and bears fruits during October-February.

Common name    :    English- Bur flower
        Hindi- Kadamb
        Odia- Kadamba

Family    :    Rubiaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 66 a), seen growing widely in deep moist, alluvial sites and often in forests along river banks. It is widely distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a large straight deciduous tree that reaches to 45 m height. The leaves are large simple, elliptic-oblong, entire and 13-32 cm in length. Flowers are orange colored, small, in dense, globose heads that appear like solid, hairy orange balls. The fruits are small capsules, packed closely together. It bears flowers on May-July and fruits during August-October.

Common name    :    English - Banana
        Hindi - Kela
        Odia - Kadali

Family    :    Musaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a large herb (Fig. 65 a), indigenous to Odisha, Bihar and Eastern Himalayas. The plant is cultivated throughout India.

General Characters
Banana is a tropical small size tree, with large leaves with overlapping bases from the trunk. The leaves are oblong and 1.2-1.5 m in length. The stem reaches a height of about 10-30 feet. Flower develop from the centre of crown. Only female flowers develop into a banana fruit that vary in length from 4 to12 inches. Each banana plant bears fruits only once. The plant bears flowers and fruits in most parts of the year.

Common name    :    English- Spanish cherry
        Hindi- Maulsari
        Odia- Baula
        
Family    :    Sapotaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a small tree (Fig. 64 a), frequently planted elsewhere also in gardens. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is a small tree with small shiny thick narrow, pointed leaves, straight trunk and spreading branches. The leaves are elliptic or oblong, 6.2-10 cm long. Flowers are small star shaped, white, yellowish white in color with a crown rising from the centre. The fragrance of flowers is very graciously scented. The fruit turns yellow-orange when ripens and are eaten fresh. The plant flowers during April-May and bears fruits during August-September.

Common name    :    English- Touch me not/sensitive plant
        Hindi- Lajwanti
        Odia- Lajakuli 
            
Family    :    Mimosaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a common weed mostly found in roadsides, waste places, damp sites, agricultural lands etc. It is widely distributed throughout the better parts of India. (Fig. 63 a)

General Characters
It is a small prostrate or ascending herb with prickly stems and grows up to a height of 50 cm with a spread of 30 cm. The leaves are bipinnate, fern like and pale green, closing when disturbed. The flowers are pale pink or purple in colour, round to ovoid heads (8-10 mm in diameter) and the flower heads arise from the leaf axils. The plant bears flowers and fruits during August-May.

Common name    :    English- Tiger’s claw/Devil’s claw
        Hindi- Ulat kanta
        Odia- Bagha nakhi

Family    :    Martyniaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a herb (Fig. 62 a), commonly occur in roadsides, waste lands, and also naturalized. It is widely distributed in India.

General Characters
It is an erect, often branched herb that grows up to 2 m in height. Leaves are kidney shaped to circular, mostly 6-15 cm wide, both surfaces are equally hairy, margins with shallow lobes and leaf stalk is 9-14 cm long. Flowers are bell shaped purplish white with dark purple markings. Fruit is capsule, more or less ovoid, 2 valved, with the style splitting into 2 curved, lignified and spiny processes with curved claw of about 1 cm. The plant bears flowers and fruits during August-January.

Common name    :    English- Mango
        Hindi- Aam
        Odia- Amba 
            
Family    :    Anacardiaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 61 a) grows wild in valleys and widely cultivated throughout tropical India.

General Characters
The plant is a large, erect and ever green tree gowing up to 30-80 ft in height with a broad and rounded canopy. The leaves are variable in size and shape, usually lanceolate, entire, acute to acuminate with 10-20 cm in size. The flowers are greenish-yellow, small and polygamous with 5 lobed calyx which are ovate-oblong or elliptic in shape and remain spreading. There is a great variation in the size, colour and flavour of the fruits. They may be nearly round, oval, ovoid-oblong or somewhat kidney shaped and usually yellow in colour when ripe. The plant bears flowers during January-March and fruits during April-May.

Common name    :    English- Angled luffa
        Hindi- Karvitori
        Odia- Pita taradi

Family    :    Cucurbitaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a climber (Fig. 60 a), widely cultivated and also found in wild. It is cultivated throughout India.

General Characters
It is an annual climber with smooth and angled stem. The leaves are 5-7 lobed or angled, 7.5-15 cm across and covered with short hairs. Flowers are yellow in colour with male and female in the same axil. The fruits are ribbed and cylindricaly shaped and 1-2 feet in length. The plant bears flowers and fruits during August-November.