eChapters

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.

Common name    :    English- White jute
        Hindi- Titapat 
        Odia- Jhota

Family    :    Tiliaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a herb (Fig. 36 a), commonly cultivated throughout India for fiber purpose.

General Charcaters
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. The plant flowers and bears fruits during July-November.

Common name    :    English- Indian cherry
        Hindi- Lasora 
        Odia- Ambota/Gualikoli

Family    :    Boraginaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a small tree (Fig. 37a), found frequently in mixed forests and distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is a small tree with ususaly drooping branches and spreading crown. The stem bark is grayish brown, smooth or longitudinally wrinkled. Leaves are orbicular, elliptic-oblong, entire with 6-12.5 cm long. Flowers are white, pinkish white, fragrant, short stalked. The fruit is a yellow shining globose or ovoid drupe seated in a saucer like enlarged calyx and it turns black on ripening and the pulp gets viscoid. The plant flowers during March-April and bears fruits during July-September.

1. Botanical Name : Cordia myxa Roxb.

2. Family : Boranginaceae

3. Common Name : Indian cherry, Lasoda , Goonda

4. Name in Indian languages

Lasoda (Hindi ), Chalhanu (Kannada), Bahubara, Bohari(Bengali), Gundomoto (Gujrati ), Aruvili (Tamil), Cheruviri (Malyalam), Bhokar (Marathi), Bahuvaraka (Sanskrit), Gondi (odiya), Chinnabotuku(Telugu).

5. Description

Cordia myxa is a medium size tree with a dense crown, that can grow up to 12 metres. The stem is stout. It is a multi-purpose tree and use as a food, medicine and source of wood, fibre etc. It is originated in Indian subcontinent but cultivated in western African countries for it’s edible and medicinal fruits.

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.

1. Botanical name : Corylus jacquemontii Decne

2. Family : Betulaceae

3. Common Name : Indian Hazelnut

4. Name in Indian languages

Bhotiya badam, Kabasi (Hindi), Thangi, Thankoli, Shalodi, Urmuni, Sharoli and Sharod (Himachali).

5. Description

Indian Hazelnut is a wild plant of the mid and high hills of the Himalayas. The tree is small or medium-sized and deciduous. Leaves are ovate or obovate, irregularly lobed or toothed, silky pubescent on nerves beneath. Flowers emerge before the leaves. Male flowers are arranged in drooping spikes while female flowers are cone-like, small, ovoid produced in pairs.

Corynebacterium diptheriae was first observed by Klebs in 1883 and was described in details by Loeffler in 1884. So it is also known as ‘Klebs- Loeffler bacillus’. In 1888, Nocard isolated a similar type of bacteria from cases of bovine farcy. In 1894, Preisz described it completely and revealed its similarities with the diphtheria bacilli. Later it was named as Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (Preisz-Nocard bacillus). Bollinger (1890) first reported C. renale from the cases of pyelonephritis in cows.

The genus Trueperella was proposed by Yassin and others (2011) to describe T. pyogenes previously known as Arcanobacterium pyogenes or Actinomyces pyogenes or Corynebacterium pyogenes. The genus Arcanobacterium was first described (Collins and others, 1982) to include the bacteria originally isolated as Corynebacterium haemolyticum from the wounds of American soldiers. On the basis of 16S rRNA comparisons and menaquinone and phospholipid compositions it is proposed that the species Arcanobacterium pyogenes should be reclassified as members of the new genus Trueperella.

The genus Rhodococcus was first introduced by Zopf (1891) as a soil bacterium used in horticulture. Magnusson (1923) described C. equi (Rhodococcus equi) from suppurative pneumonia of a foal.

1. Botanical name : Crataegus oxyacantha L.

2. Family : Rosaceae

3. Common Name : English Hawthorn

4. Name in Indian languages

Bansangli (Hindi), Ghingharoo (Kumaoni).

5. Description

Hawthorn is a thorny shrub commonly found in abundance in forests and open places in Himalayan regions at an altitude of 1500- 2500 m above msl. It is an aggressive settler and difficult to remove. The stem is grayish to purple brown in colour and hard. Hawthorn has been used in folk medicine for the treatment of diarrhea, gall bladder disease, insomnia, and as an antispasmodic agent in the treatment of asthma.

Common name    :    English- Rattle pods
        Hindi- San 
        Odia- Junujhunuka

Family    :    Fabaceae

Habit & Distribution: 
It is a shrub (Fig. 38 a), common in waste places, roadsides and river banks. It is widely distributed in India.

General Characters
The plant is a perennial shrub, with stems ascending or erect, 1-2 m tall. Leaves are trifoliate, leaflets elliptic, ovate, 2.8-9.5 cm long and 1.2-4.5 cm wide. Flowers are yellow, 1-1.5 cm long, somewhat long inflorescence about 15-40 cm long. Pods brown at maturity, 3.5-3.8 cm long. The plant flowers and bears fruits during April.

Family : Cucurbitaceae

Flowering: September-October

Fruiting: October-November

Botanical Description: The plant is an procumbent annual climber growing to 1.5m. The leaves are oval to kidney shaped with five to seven shallow lobes. Plants produce trailing vines and yellow flowers similar to cucumbers, but flowers may be male, female, or perfect. Fruit is spherical or ovoid, large, and can reach the size of a football, although it is generally more flattened. It is striped green or pale green in colour, ultimately turning yellow.

Common name    :    English- Wild cucumber
        Hindi- Khira
        Odia- Pita kakudi

Family    :    Cucurbitaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a herbaceous climber (Fig. 39a) apparently wild in open waste lands and distributed all over India.

General Characters
The plant is a herbaceous climber with simple tendrils. Leaves are entire or shallowly 5 lobed with 12 cm across and 15 cm petiole. Flowers are yellow in colour, 1.7-2.5cm across. The fruits are oblong, yellowish-green, glabrous and covered with rigid hairs or soft spines. Flowering and fruiting occur during September-November.

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.

Common name    :    English- Giant dodder
        Hindi- Amar bel
        Odia- Nirmuli
 
Family    :    Cuscutaceae
 
Habit & Distribution
It is a parasitic plant (Fig. 40 a) that usually grows in a profilic manner over other plants as support. It is widely distributed throughout India. 

General Characters
The plant is a creeper with yellowish-green or yellow stem and often in dense mass. The flowers of the plant are white or pinkish and almost 6-7.5 mm long. The corolla of the flower is tubular with short reflected lobes. The fruits are fleshy and globose with conical in shape. It bears flowers during October to December and bears fruits during December-Jnauary.

Common name    :    English- Bermuda grass
        Hindi- Dub
        Odia- Duba ghasa

Family    :    Poaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is fairly common in lawns, roadsides, cultivated lands, damp grounds, wastelands etc. It is widely distributed throughout India. (Fig. 41 a)

General Characters
It is a variable perennial creeper with hairy leaves, 3-7 spikes (rarely 2) together at the top of the stem. The stem is erect and often grows 1-30 cm in height. It has a deep root system that grows to over 2 m deep in to the soil. It flowers and bears fruits throughout the year.

Common name    :    English- Rose wood
        Hindi- Shisham
        Odia- Sissoo

Family    :    Fabaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a tree (Fig. 43 a), commonly planted along roadsides. The plant is widely distributed throughout India.
 
General Characters
The plant is a medium sized tree with thick, gery or pale brown bark. It reaches up to a maximum of 25m in height and 2-3 m in diameter. The leaves are leathery, alternate and about 15 cm long. The flowers are yellowish in colour and 1.5 cm in long. The pods are oblong, flat, thin and 2.5-7.5 cm long with 3-4 seeds in it. The plant flowers during March-June and bears fruits during November-February.

Common name    :    English- Thron apple
        Hindi- Dhatura
        Odia- Duddura

Family    :    Solanaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a shrub (Fig. 42 a), commonly found in road sides, waste lands, damp grounds and also in forests. It is widely distributed throughout India and is of cosmopolitan nature.

General Characters
It is an annual shrub growing up to a height of 8 ft. The stem is green or purple in colour and leaves are ovate and irregularly lobed about 5-12.5 cm long. Flowers of the plant are white or purple in colour and 6.2-12.5 cm in size. The fruit is an egg shaped spiny capsule almost 5 cm in diameter. The plant flowers and bears fruits in the month of November.

1. Botanical Name : Debregeasia velutina Gaud

2. Family : Urticaceae

3. Common Name : Wild Rhea

4. Name in Indian languages

Syaru (Kumoani), Poonoolmaram, Neeranji, Narambili, (Malayalam), Kaattu, Nochchi, Katunochchi, (Tamil), Sansaru (Hindi), Garuga (Kannada), Tussare (Nepali), Khargul(Marathi), Syaru (Garhwali).

Common name    :    English - Gold mohar
        Hindi - Gul mohar
        Odia - Krusnachuda

Family    :    Fabaceae

Habit & Distribution 
The plant is a tree (Fig. 44 a), commonly planted in gardens and avenues. It is widely planted throughout India as a street tree.

General Characters
The plant reaches up to 30-40 ft in height. Leaves are feathery and grow up to 60 cm long with 11-18 pinnae pairs and many leaflets. The flowers are orange or red in color and more than 10 cm across and appear in corymbs along and at the ends of branches. Pods are 30-60 cm long, green and flaccid when young and turn dark-brown later. The plant bears flowers in the month April-June.

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.