eChapters

Common name    :    English- Bellyache bush         
        Hindi- Ratanjoti 
        Odia- Baigoba/Baigewa

Family    :    Euphorbiaceae

Habit & Distribution
It is a shrub (Fig. 56 a), very commonly found in waste ground, village hedges, roadsides and scrub forests. The plant is cultivated and naturalized in several parts of India.

General Characters
The plant is a small dark colored glandular hairy shrub, 0.8-1.8 m in height. The leaves are 6-12 cm in diameter, palmatly 3-5 lobed, entire with 3-5 cm long petiole. Flowers are red with yellow centre. The petioles and stipules have glandular hairs. It flowers and bears fruits during July-October.

Common name    :    English- Peregrina/Spicy jatropha
     
Family    :    Euphorbiaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a shrub, usually planted in gardens.

General Characters
It is a small erect and branched shrub (Fig. 57 a). The leaves are entire, elliptic-oval, may be fiddle shaped with 7 inches long. The flowers are red and pink and about 2.5 cm across and borne in many flowered clusters at branch end. Fruit is rounded-trigonous. The plant bears flowers and fruits in most parts of the year.

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.

Common name    :    Odia- Laoo
        English-Calbash     
        Hindi- Lauki

Family    :    Cucurbitaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a climber (Fig. 58 a), commonly cultivated and distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is an annual vigorous herb, running or climbing vine with large leaves and with lush appearance. Leaves are simple, 17-20 cm diameter, short and softly hairy with kidney or heart shaped outlines. Flowers are white, up to 4 inches in diameter with spreading petals. Fruits are of various shapes, in different varieties, like bottole or dumbbell shaped, rounded or elongated. The plant flowers during July-January and bears fruits during cold season.

Common name    :    English- Wild sage 
        Hindi- Raimuniya 
        Odia- Naguari

Family    :    Verbenaceae
 
Habit & Distribution 
It is a shrub (Fig. 59 a), commonly found in roadsides, wasteland, damp site etc. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
The plant is an evergreen shrub grows up to 6 ft height and may spread 8 ft in width. The leaves are ovate-oblong, about 2-5 inches long with rounded tooth edges and a textured surface. Stem and leaves surfaces are covered with rough hairs and emit an unpleasant aroma when crushed. Flowers usually white-pink or orange-yellow in colour and are held in clusters that are typically 1-2 inches across. Fruits are small, globose, fleshy, purplish black berries after ripe. The plant bears flowers and fruits in all round the year.

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.

1. Botanical Name : Leptadenia pyrotechnica Forssk. Decne

2. Family : Apocynaceae

3. Common Name : Kheep, Broom bush

4. Name in Indian languages

Kheep (Hindi), Khip(Punjabi), Jivanti (Sanskrit).

5. Description

It is a much branched often leafless erect shrub. The edible part is tender fruit. It can grow up to 3 metres height. A desert plant, it is often utilized by local people within its native range, particularly as a fibre plant and for fuel. It is also planted in soil stabilization in arid areas.

6. Origin and distribution

It is originated from North Africa to desert areas to Western India. It is distributed throughout the arid zone of Rajasthan particularly in Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaiselmer districts of Rajasthan. Kheep is also found gorwing in Pakistan, Iran, Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Libya and Algeria.

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek (1681) first observed the spirochetes under the microscope and described them. In 1833, Ehrenberg used the name Spirochaeta for free living spiral shaped organisms. Obermeir (1873) first described a spirochete of pathogenic significance isolated from human patients with relapsing fever. Inada (1916) first isolated Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae from human patients of Weil’s disease. In 1980, Nogochi proposed the name as Leptospira.

In India, Taylor and Goyale (1931) first reported Leptospira from human patients suffering with jaundice in Andaman Islands. Ayyar (1932) first reported Leptospira from dogs in Chennai city.

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 : Rutaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: November-January

Botanical Description: The plant is an erect, slow-growing tree with a few upward-reaching branches. The bark is ridged, fissured and scaly with sharp spines. The leaves are alternate, 3 to 5 in long, dark-green in colour, leathery, often minutely toothed, blunt or notched at the apex, are dotted with oil glands and slightly lemon-scented when crushed. Flowers are greenish or reddish in colour, 1/2in across, are borne in small, loose, terminal or lateral panicles. The tree is mostly known for its hard woody fruit, size of a tennis ball, round to oval in shape. The pulp is brown, odorous, resinous, acid or sweetish, with numerous small, white seeds scattered through it.

Murray (1926) and Pirie (1927) first described Listeria independently. In India, animal listeriosis in sheep was first reported by Mahajan (1936) in Andhra Pradesh.

Robert Koch first isolated Erysipelothrix in 1876 from a mouse he inoculated with putrefying blood. Koch initially named the bacterium “Bacillus of mouse septicemia”. Pasteur and Dumas (1882) first isolated Erysipelothrix from the infected pigs. Friedrich Loffler (1886) first experimentally produced the infection in pigs. Rosenbach (1909) first described human erysipeloid. The nomenclature of the bacterium is changed several times and Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae was finally accepted by the scientific community in 1966. The name is originated from Greek words such as ‘erysipelas’ (red skin), ‘trix’ (hair), ‘rhusius’ (reddening) and ‘pathus’ (disease).

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.

1. Botanical name :Machilus edulis King ex Hook.

2. Family : Lauraceae

3. Common Name: Pumsi, wild avocado

4. Name in Indian languages : Pumsi, Phumkung (Lepcha), Lachyphal, Kawala (Nepali).

5. Description

Pumsi is an evergreen species grow up to a height of about 15-20 m, with spreading branches. It grows from Nepal to Sikkim, Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh and the whole north-eastern region. Pumsi is considered as one of the forms of Avocado (Percea americana) in its native region.

6. Origin and distribution

It is native of India,Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and the whole north-eastern region. The plants growwell incool humid regions in hills.The species is found in low density in forests at 1200 - 2400 metres height.The species is hermaphrodite, suitable for light sandy to loamy and clay soils. It can grow in semi-shade. It prefers moist soil.

Family : Sapotaceae

Flowering: February-April

Fruiting: May-July

Botanical Description: The plant is a large or moderate-sized tree, smooth and brown bark with pubescent or tomentose branchlets. The leaves are clustered near the ends of the branches, elliptic, oblong or ovate and acuminate. The flowers are cream coloured, fleshy, on rusty tomentose pedicel and clustered at the end of the usually leafless branches. The fruits are fleshy, green berries, quite large and containing from one to four shiny, brown seeds.

1. Botanical Name : Madhuca longifolia var. latifolia (Rox.) A. Chev.

2. Family : Sapotaceae

3. Common Name : Indian Butter Tree

4. Name in Indian languages

Mahua, Mohwa (Hindi), Maul (Bengali), Kat-Illipi (Marathi), Illupa Malayalam), Ippa (Telugu), Mahudo (Gujarati), Hippe Mara (Kannada).

5. Description

Indian Butter tree (mahua) is one of the most important trees of Indian forest. It produces delicious and nutritive flowers, fruits, seeds and valuable timber. It is a deciduous tree with a large, spreading, rounded crown that can grow 16 metres or more tall. The short main trunk can be up to 80 cm in diameter. Mahua is an indigenous tree of high economic value. A characteristic tree of the dry region, it is found in north and central India. The tree is very well known to rural folk since ages in India. Its flowers, fruits, and oil obtained from seeds are eaten in various ways. Mahua flowers are a rich source of sugar containing appreciable amount of vitamins and minerals. Fruit is eaten as raw or cooked. Pulp is a good source of sugar, whereas dry husk makes a good source of absolute alcohol. Seed is a good source of oil.

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.

Family : Sapotaceae

Flowering: November-January

Fruiting: March-June

Botanical Description: The plant is a tree growing up to 3-12 m tall, with gray bark and smooth branchlets. The leaves are alternately arranged often closely clustered towards the end of branchlets, obovate to obovate-elliptic leaf blade with 0.8-2 cm leaf-stalks. Flowers are white or light yellow in colour, about 4 mm in size and arise in fascicles in leaf axils. Berry is oblong to ellipsoid, 1- 2 seeded and yellow when ripe.

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.

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.