eChapters

Family: Brassicaseae

Flowering & Fruiting: August-March

Botanical description: The plant is having a short stem, enlarging into a spherical edible tuber. Basal cauline leaves are broadly ovate, not overlapping on globose stem, about 10-45 x 3-25 cm across with cuneate base.

Ecology: The plant is a herb, widely cultivated as vegetable in the tropical countries including India. The plant loves to grow in late winter season.

Family: Amaranthaceae

Flowering: August-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: The plant is a herb, growing up to 60-75cm height, erect, branching with oval or lanceo-shaped, with hundreds of tiny flowers packed in dense spikes of silver- white flowers which usually stand above the foliage. They are beautiful plants with soft, dense feathery spikes, produced in profusion. Leaves are lanceolate, linear, acute to acuminate tapering into slender petiole. Seeds are several, black in colour and shining.

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: August-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: The plant is a small creeping herb with shovel shaped leaves emerging alternately in clusters at the stem nodes. The runners lie along the ground and the inch long leaves with their scalloped edges rise above on long reddish petioles. The insignificant greenish- to pinkish-white flowers are borne in dense umbels (clusters in which all the flower stalks arise from the same point) on separate stems in the summer. The seeds are pumpkin-shaped nutlets 0.1-0.2 cm long.

Ecology: It is commonly seen in shady, damp and wet places such as paddy fields and in grass thickets and distributed throughout India.

Use: Leaves and young shoots are collected, roasted then eaten

Family: Chenopodiaceae

Flowering: November-January Fruiting: February-April

Botanical description: The plant is a fast-growing, upright and weedy annual herb. The leaves are variables in appearance. The first leaves, near the base of the plant, are toothed and 3-7 cm long and 3-6 cm broad. The leaves on the upper part of the flowering stems are entire and lanceolate-rhomboid with 1-5 cm long and 0.4-2 cm broad. The flowers of the plant are 1-1.2 mm across, in short axillary spikes and often forming a terminal thyrse. Seeds are black, depressed with an obscure horizontal keel.

Family: Fabaceae

Flowering: December-February

Fruiting: February-April

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb, much branched and viscous hairy. The plant grows up to 20-50 cm high and has small feathery leaves on either side of the stem. The flowers are bluish purple in colour, 6-7 mm long on slender peduncles. Pods oblong, one seedpod contains two or three peas.

Family: Lauraceae

Flowering: January Fruiting: February

Botanical description: The plant is a moderate sized tree growing up to 10-20 metres. Leaves are mostely oblong, usually 10-12.5 cm long, acuminate or acute, glabrous with shining above and acute base. The flowers are 5-6 mm long with pubescent pedicel. The tepals are pubescent, deciduous in fruits.

Ecology: The plant is occasionally planted and commonly cultivated as vegetable in the tropical countries including India.

Use: Leaves are used in different curries and recipes for special aroma.

Family: Cleomaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: December-February

Botanical description: The plant is an erect herbaceous annual herb growing up to 1.5 m in height. Leaves are alternately arranged and stalked. Each leaf has 3-7 leaflets, which are pinnately dissected and stalkless. Inflorescence is quite showy, and is usually up to 30 cm in length. The flowers have long stalks, ovate or elliptic petals either purplish or white in colour. The fruit is a long-stalked, dry, spindle-shaped capsule. Seeds are many, 1.5 mm across, with a shallow and narrow cleft.

Family: Cleomaceae

Flowering: May-July

Fruiting: August-October

Botanical description: The plant is a tall annual herb growing up to a meter high, more or less hairy with glandular hairs. The leaves are compound, with 3-5 leaflets. Leaflets are obovate, elliptic-oblong, very variable in size. Flowers are yellow in colour, 10-15 mm across with 6-20 mm long pedicels. Fruits are 30-75 mm long, 3-5 mm broad, linear-oblong, erect, with tapering at both ends. Seeds many, 1.25mm across with dark brown colour.

Family : Araceae

Flowering: The plants flowers in Late wet season (September-October)

Botanical description: The plant is a tuberous bulb, herbaceous plant growing about 3-5 ft in height. The plant has large leaves. The leaves are heart shapes, 2-3 ft long with a long stalk of about 3 ft height. The flowers are yellowish-white spathes and spadixes are frequently produced.

Ecology: It is commonly found in damp, shady places and also cultivated. The plant is widely distributed throughout the hotter parts of India.

Family: Commelinaceae

Flowering: August-September

Fruiting: September-October

Botanical description: The plant is a small diffused or straggling herb. Stem usually with a line of pubescence. Leaves are linear, 3.7-7.5 cm long, acute or acuminate, glabrous with prominent midrib and acute-obtuse at apex. Flowers are blue in colour and very small. Capsules are oblong and 4.3 mm long. The capsule is having 2 seeds, 2.5 mm long, ellipsoid, cylindrical with white appendage at each end.

Family: Commelinaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: The plant is a diffuse, branched, sub-succulent herb growing upto 30-60 cm. Leaves are 3-5 x 2-3.5 cm in size, ovate or elliptic-ovate, base rounded or almost flat with blunt or pointed tip. Spathe is about 1.5 cm across, funnel-shaped, flat at apex and velvet-hairy. Sepals are nearly equal, about 2.5 mm long, outer ones linear, inner ones orbicular. Flowers are small, petals are blue in colour, larger ones about 4 x 4.5 mm with broadly ovate. The seeds are 5 and closely pitted.

Family: Tiliaceae

Flowering: July-September

Fruiting: October-November

Botanical description: The plant is an erect, annual herb reaching up to 1-2 m height. The stems are usually purplish white. Leaves are ovate-lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, pointed at the tip and rounded at the base. The flowers are borne in small groups in the axils of the leaves about 4 mm long. The capsules are round to ovoid and about 1 cm in diameter.

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: February-March

Botanical description: The plant is a herb, growing to a height of about 2 feet with a spread of 9 inches. The leaves are bright green in colour, fan shaped and become more feathery towards the top of the plant. The flowers are small and white, formed in umbel-like clusters. Fruit is globose, glabrous and seeds are flattened dorsally in transaction.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: March-June

Fruiting: May-August

Botanical description: The plant generally spreads on the ground with cylindric and grooved stem. The leaves are rounded to reniform, 6-25cm in diameter with 5 rounded shallow lobes and coarsely hairly. The flowers are monoecious and yellow in colour. Fruits usually lagre, oblong, oval, flattened or globular in size. Seeds are ovate, obscurely margined with white or yellow in colour.

Family : Gramineae (Poaceae)

Flowering: November

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial tree that grows up to 20-53 m in height and 8-18 cm in diameter. There are 1-3 spines at each branch node. Leaves are thin, linear, up to 20 cm long, 1-1.8 cm wide with a long pointed tip. The branches of the plant spread out from the base and areal roots reaching up to nodes. The length of the internodes is about 15-46 cm and is hollow.

Ecology: It is fairly common in mixed forests or dry hills, often found in hills and shady slopes and alluvial plains.

Family: Compositae

Flowering: Aug-December

Fruiting: January-April

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb. The stems are weak, erect or often branched at the base, smooth or sparingly hairy with 10 to 60 cm tall. This species is recognized by the sow-thistle like leaves.

Family: Asteraceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate herb. The stem of the plant is succulent, with short ascending flowering hairy branches. The leaves are narrowly linear-oblong, acute or obtuse, entire or subcrenate with 2-5cm long. Heads yellow in colour, axillary and terminal, sessile with 7-18mm diameter.

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: April-June

Fruiting: July-August

Botanical description: The plant is an perennial, erect, dichotomously branched, aromatic herb, growing up to 15-45 cm high. Leaves are sessile, oblanceolate-oblong, spinosely- serrate and glabrous. Inflorescence heads numerous, cylindric, about 10 x 5 mm with the involucral bracts exceeding the heads. Petals are white or greenish in colour. Fruits are greenish, subspherical and about 1.5 mm in diameter.

Family: Asparagaceae

Flowering: October-January

Botanical description: The plant is an evergreen perennial shrub. It is stemless or with a short stem up to 1 m tall, producing a rosette of leaves of about 40 - 180cm long. The leaves are sword-shaped, 1-1.8 m long and 10-15 cm broad at their widest point, narrowing to 6-7 cm broad at the leaf base, and to a sharp spine tip at the apex. The flowers are greenish to creamy white, 4 cm long, and strongly scented.

Family: Molluginaceae

Flowering: March-June

Fruiting: July-October

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate annual herb, growing upto to 50 cm long. Leaves are in pseudo-whorls of 3-6 or opposite; leaf blade is spoon-shaped or elliptic, obtuse or acute apex with short leaf stalks. Flowers are greenish white in colour and about 5mm to 8mm across. Capsule is ellipsoid, shorter than the sepals. Seeds are brown and finely granulate.

Ecology: It is commonly found in sandy soil, especially alone river banks, occasionally found in swampy localities, in dried-up pools and ditches and in rice-fields. The plant loves to grow on sandy soil.

Family: Malvaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: October-February

Botanical description: The plant is a robust branched, annual herb that grows 4-7 ft tall and almost as broad. Leaves are dark green in colour, about 6 in across, deeply dissected into 3-5 narrow lobes. The stems, branches, leaf veins, and leaf stalks are reddish purple. The flowers of the plant are yellow with deep purple centre and about 3 inches across. The sepals of the flowers are prominent, fleshy, bright red in colour. Capsule is ovoid, 1.5 cm across with brownish seeds.

Family: Violaceae

Flowering: Round the year

Fruiting: Round the year

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial herb The plant grows upto to 60 cm high, often branched and spreading. Leaves are sub-sessile, linear to lanceolate, 1-5 cm long with recurved to revolute margins or occasionally flat. The flowers are pink in colour with 5 petals. Capsule is subglobose, 4-9mm long with 5-12 seeds pitted between ribs.

Family: Hydroleaceae

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: February-April

Botanical description: The plant is an annual, aquatic, ascending or prostrate herb, sparingly branched growing up to 1.2 meters in length, and rooting at the lower nodes. The leaves are lanceolate, 4-10 mm long, and pointed at both ends. The flowers are very numerous, bright blue in colour, 8-10 mm across and borne in racemes. The sepals are hairy, green, oblong-linear, and about 5 mm long. The capsule is ovoid, surrounded by the persistent sepals, and contains numerous, minute, oblong seeds.

Family: Acanthaceae

Flowering: October-December

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is a stout aquatic perennial herb growing up to 1-2 m high. The stems are erect, unbranched and hairy near swollen nodes. The leaves are sessile, linear- oblong, stalkless, 10-15 cm long, occur in whorls of 6 at each node on the stem. Straight, yellow, 4 cm long spines are present in the axil of each leaf. Flowers are purple in colour, occur in 4 pairs at each node and open in opposite pair.

Family: Convolvulaceae

Flowering: Most part of the year

Fruiting: Most part of the year

Botanical description: The plant is a semi-aquatic tropical herbaceous plant. The stem of the plant is thick, fistular or spongy, rooting at the nodes trailing on moist soil or mud, or floating on water. Leaves are variable in shape and size,such as ovate-oblong, ovate- triangular, lanceolate, elliptic-oblong.The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3-5 cm diameter, usually white in colour with a purple center.Capsule ovoid, glabrous and 2-4 seeded.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical description: The plant is a vigorous, annual, climbing herb. It grows fast and may begin to flower only two months after seeding. The vine is branched and climbs by means of tendrils along the stem. The foliage is covered with soft hairs and has a foul musky odor when crushed. The leaves of the plant are up to 15 inches wide, circular in overall shape, with smooth margins, a few broad lobes, or with undulate margins. Leaves have a velvety texture because of the fine hairs, especially on the undersurface. The flowers are white in colour and borne singly on the axils of the leaves, the males on long peduncles and the females on short peduncles. Fruits are of various shapes like bottle or dumb bell-shaped, rounded or elongated.

Family: Brassicaceae

Flowering: June-August

Fruiting: August-October

Botanical description: The plant is an annual herb that reaches at a height upto 2 ft, with many branches on the upper part. The leaves are entire, the upper ones are stalkless whereas the lower ones are stalked. Flowers are white to pinkish in color, small, 2 mm across, borne in long racemes. The fruits are small pods, obovate, with two seeds per pod. The seeds are brownish red in colour and become slimy when soaked in water. Garden cress is native to mediterranean region, introduced and naturalised, cultivated throughout the world. Within India, it is cultivated as a salad plant and found as an escape.

Family: Lamiaceae

Flowering: July-October

Fruiting: October-January

Botanical description: The plant is an erect and diffusely branched annual herb, growing up to 20-60 cm in height. Leaves are linear or oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 cm long with blunt tips and scalloped margins. Whorls are large, terminal and axillary, about 2.5 cm in diameter and crowded with white bell shaped flowers. Calyx is variable, with an upper lip and short, triangular teeth. Nutlets are 2.5mm in size, smooth and brown.

Family: Plantaginaceae

Flowering: September-November

Fruiting: December-February

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial, small marsh herb. Stems are much branched, hairless. The aerial stems are up to 15 cm height, simple or branched, hairless, with stalked or stalkless glands. The submerged leaves are 1.5-2.5 cm in size, pinnately cut into segments which are flattened to capillary. The aerial leaves are usually whorled, pinnately lobed, 0.4-2 cm, sometimes few opposite and toothed. Flowers arise singly in the axils of aerial leaves. Flower stalk is slender, and 2-10 mm in length. Petals are botched with dark purple or reddish spots. The capsule is dark brown, compressed with ellipsoid to round in shape.

Family: Marsileaceae (Pteridophyta)

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: January-March

Botanical description: The plant is a branched herbaceous plant with creeping rhizome and usually 3-15 cm or more in length. Leaves are composed of 4 obdeltoid leaflets. Leaflets are cruciform, obovate, variable in size depending on the ecological conditions, usually glabrous with rounded outer margin. Pedicels are 2-6, basal and slightly connate or free. Sporocarps are seen crowded or in groups of 2–3, arising at the base of the petiole.

Family: Lamiaceae

Flowering: August-September

Fruiting: September-October

Botanical dcescription: The plant is a glabrous perennial herb. Stems are erect, about 1 ft tall, usually less, purplish, hairless. Leaves are stalkless, sessile, lanceolate or ovate, acute with glabrous above and glandular below. Flowers are lilac, loose cylindrical, slender with interrupted spikes.

Family: Rubiaceae

Flowering: September-December

Fruiting: December-March

Botanical description: The plant is erect or diffused, pubescent herb, growing up to 40 cm in height. The leaves are sessile, ovate-lanceolate, acute, pubescent and rounded at the base. Flowers are small, white in colour and verticillate in axillary fascicles with small calyx. Capsule is globose, less than 1 mm across with 2 minute seeds and having furrowed on one side.

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: June-October

Fruiting: October-February

Botanical description: Bitter gourd is a herbaceous, tendril-bearing, slender climber, growing up to 5 m. It bears simple, alternate leaves 4-12 cm across, with 3-7 deeply separated lobes. Each plant bears separate yellow male and female flowers, about 2-3 cm in diameter. Male flowers are more numerous, having a yellow center and conical base, while female flowers have a green center and a small bump at the base. The fruits are oblong shaped and tapering at both ends, 5-20 cm long and turns yellow when ripe. It is hollow in cross-section, with a relatively thin layer of flesh surrounding a central seed cavity filled with large flat seeds and pith. Seeds and pith appear white in unripe fruits.

Family: Moraginaceae

Flowering: January-March

Fruiting: April-June

Botanical description: The plant is a small deciduous tree, having corky gray bark, branching and fernlike leaves and growing up to 10 metre in height. The leaves are pinnately compound, 25-50 cm long with thickened and articulated at the base. The flowers of the plant are scented and white in colour with lanceolate petals. Capsule is pendulous, long bean like seed pods and usually 22-45 cm long.

Family: Rutaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: May-September

Botanical description: The plant is a small tree, growing up to 4-6 m tall, with a trunk up to 40 cm diameter. The leaves are opposite or alternate, lanceolate or ovate, strongly scented with 11-21 leaflets. The flowers are small white, and fragrant. The berries are small, ovoid or ellipsoid, black in colour, shiny and edible, but their seeds are poisonous.

Family: Bignoniaceae

Flowering: July-August

Fruiting: December-March

Botanical description: The plant is a medium sized deciduous tree, growing up to 8-12 m tall. The bark is grayish brown with corky lenticels. The leaves are huge, 0.5-1.5 m long, 2-3 pinnate with leaflets of 12 cm long and 8 cm broad. The flowers are reddish- purple outside and pale, -yellowish within, numerous, in large erect racemes. The fruits are flat capsules, 0.33-1 meter long and 5-10 cm broad, sword-shaped. The seeds numerous, flat and winged all around, except at the base.

Family: Oxalidaceae

Flowering: June-August

Fruiting: September-October

Botanical description: The plant is a creeping herb, branching from the base and often rooted at the nodes, the upper portion is ascending or weakly erect, smooth or hairy. The leaves are arranged alternately along the stems. A single long stalk arises from the axils of the leaf, from which extend three flower stalks, each with a single flower. The flowers are 7-11 mm wide and have 5 yellow petals. The fruit is a capsule, 1-1.5 cm long, cylindric, pointed apically, and 5-ridged in cross section.

Family: Rubiaceae

Flowering: August-September

Fruiting: September-October

Botanical description: The plant is a perennial twining climber, arising from a woody rootstock. Its stems grow up to 7 m or more, climbing, or prostrate and rooting at the nodes. Leaves are oval to linear-lanceolate, oppositely arranged, 2-11 cm long, hairy or smooth, often lobed at base with prominent stipules. Leaf stalks are mostly up to 6 cm long. Leaves and stems have a atinking smell, especially when crushed. Flowers are small, purple, broad or long, curving clusters at the end of branches or in leaf axils. Fruit is a shiny brown, nearly round capsule, up to 0.7 cm across, with 2 black, rounded seeds.

Family: Verbenaceae

Flowering: August-September

Fruiting: September-October

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate, flowering and broadleaf herb. The leaves are opposite, obovate, serrate above middle, obtuse or rounded and thick. The flowers are small, in axillary peduncled and consists of a purple-coloured centre encircled by small white-to-pink flowers. Fruits are 2 mm long, enclosing two with 1-celled pyrenes.

Family: Fabaceae

Flowering: October-November

Fruiting: November-December

Botanical description: The plant is an annual, erect branched, glabrous herb growing upto 30-90 cm in height. Leaves are compound, leafelets are lanceolate, often doubly serrate, acuminate and sparsely puberulous both side with acute to rounded base. The flowers are 9-16 in number and arranged in umbellule, 1.5 mm across, with a pedicels 5 mm long. Fruit is ovate, slightly compressed laterally, glabrous with prominent ribs.

Family: Fabaceae

Flowering: November-December

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is smooth, glaucous, annual herbaceous plant with foloaceous ovate stipules, irregularly toothed at the base. The leaflets are 2-3 pairs, opposite leaf-rachis ending in a branched tendril. The colour of the flower is white, peduncle is 1 and few flowered. Pods are broad with rounded, green or yellowish seeds.

Family: Lamiaceae

Flowering: September-October

Fruiting: November-December

General Characters: The plant is a small, erect, fleshy, annual herb, growing up to 30-50 cm high. The leaves are oppositely arranged, broadly ovate, 5-12 cm long, pointed, heart- shaped at base, with a toothed margin. Flowers are pale blue in colour, borne in branched racemes, 7-20 cm long, at the end of branches. Fruits are round, 2-3 mm, gery brown, with sparse small dark warts.

Family: Polygonaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: April-June

Botanical description: The plant is a prostrate and densely branched, annual herb. Stems are branched from base, branches numerous. The leaves are linear, oblong 2.5-18 mm long, acute or obtuse and often with revolute margins. Flowers are small, pink with green midrib, subsessile and sunk among the stipules or exsert. The nuts are 1.0-1.75 mm long, circular to ovate, shining, and black.

Family: Portulacaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: April-June

Botanical description: The plant is prostrate or erect herb growing upto1030 cm in height. Leaves are alternate or subopposite, margins entire, obtuse or truncate apex, clustered at stem joints and ends. The flowers are yellow in colour, sessile to 1 cm across, open singly at the center of the leaf cluster for only a few hours on sunny mornings. The seeds are brown in colour, 0.8 mm with minutely tubercled.

Family: Brassicaceae

Flowering: December-January

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is an edible root vegetable growing upto 20-40cm in height. leaves usually are medium green and lobed and have a rough texture, lower leaves are lyrate, upper ones is lobed. The flowers are cross-shaped with four petals, usually about an inch across and white, pink or purple in colour. The seed pods are sickle shaped, 2-12" long, first green, then turning brown when mature. They are full of little round seeds.

Family: Convolvulaceae

Flowering: October-November

Fruiting: November-December

Botanical description: The plant is a large climber with silky branches. The leaves are broadly ovate, 5-8.7 cm in diameter with obtuse apex. Flowers are large, yellowish-white in colour, fragrant, 6 cm long, 5 cm across on 1-3 flowered with long tubes. Fruit is globose, 1.2 cm in diameter, enclosed by enlarged and woody calyx.

Family: Acanthaceae

Flowering: November-December

Fruiting: January-February

Botanical description: The plant is a diffused or erect herb with cylindrical stem and growing up to 10-20 cm in height. The leaves are oppositely arranged, nealy glabrous, oblong-lanceolate with sharp-tipped. Flowers are tiny, violet-blue in colour and are about 3-4 mm long, and occur in spikes at the end of branches, or in leaf axils. The capsule in 2 mm in size and compressed.

Family: Caesalpiniaceae

Flowering: September-November

Fruiting: November-December

Botanical description: The plant is a small erect hairlesss shrub, growing about 1 m tall. The leaves are compound, arranged spirally and usually have three pairs of symmetrically egg- shaped, leaflets up to 2 inches long. One to three yellow flowers appear on short axillary stems. The linear pods grow upto 8 inches long, curve downward and contain many shiny, and angular seeds.

Family: Solanaceae

Flowering: July-September

Fruiting: October-December

Botanical description: The plant is an erect, branched herbaceous weed that grows up to 60cm tall. The leaves are alternate, ovate or oblong, deep green in colour with an indented margin and acuminate at the tip. Flowers are small, white in colour with 5-1.5 mm across. The berries are globose in shape, green at early stage and turn to orange or black when ripened.

Family: Solanaceae

Flowering: November-December

Fruiting: January-March

Botanical description: The potato plant is a leafy, tufted herb with tuberous underground stems growing up to 2 ft tall and spreading out a little more. The leaves are compound, long and the leaflets are 7-15 in number, with about 3 inch in long. The tubers are not roots, but modified stems or rhizomes, and the “eyes” are really leaf buds.