Scientific Name: Elaeocarpus tuberculatus Roxb.

Synonyms: Elaeocarpus serrulatus Roxb., Elaeocarpus bilocularis (Jack) Roxb. ex Wight & Arn.

Unique ID: 68

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Order: Oxalidales

Family: Elaeocarpaceae

Common Names

English – Elaeocarpus

Malayalam – രുദ്രാക്ഷം

Tamil –  Ruthraksham., Pathrachi

Description: Trees, to 24 m high, bole buttressed; bark 10-12 mm thick, grey mottled with white, smooth; blaze greyish-brown; young stem, buds, petioles and peduncles densely brown villous; branches monopodial. Leaves simple, alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, brown-villous; petiole 15-30 mm, stout, pubescent, swollen tipped; lamina 8-24 x 4-15 cm, obovate, base cuneate or round, apex acute, obtuse or retuse, margin distantly serrate or crenate or subentire, glabrous above, ferruginous pubescent beneath, lateral nerves 8-12 pairs, parallel, the margin prominent, intercostae scalariform, slender, prominent, domatia present. Flowers bisexual, white, in axillary racemes to 12 cm long; pedicel 2 cm long, deflexed; sepals 5, lanceolate, tomentose outside, valvate; petals 5, white, fimbriate, fulvous tomentose inserted round the base of glandular disc; stamens numerous, inserted between the glands on the disc; anthers thinly tomentose, terminating in long bristle; ovary superior, subglobose, densely tomentose, placed on raised torus, 2-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style subulate, tomentose, entire. Fruit a drupe, 3-3.5 × 2.5 cm, oblong or ellipsoid, green, ferrugenous tomentose, stones single, compressed, coarsely tuberculate, 1-2-celled.

Habitat: Along banks of streams in evergreen and shola forests

Distribution:  Indo-Malesia ; in the Western Ghats- South and Central Sahyadris.

Uses:  It is considered highly medicinal in Ayurveda, Folk medicine, Siddha