Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Taccaceæ

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N. 0. TACCACEÆ.

1265 Tacca pinnatifida, Forst., h.f.b.i., vi., 287.

Habitat :— The Concans, Central India.

Leaves 2-3ft. diam. ; tripartite segments 2-3-fid or irregularly pinnatifid or pinnate at the base ; petiole l-3ft., smooth. Scape tapering, longer than the petiole, striped, dark and light- green, 10-40-fid. Flowers drooping ; involucre leaves 4-12 or more, subequal, oblong, acuminate, lanceolate, recurved, striped with purple ; filiform bracts very numerous. Perianth greenish, subglobose, ⅔in. diam., fleshy ; lobes conniving, subequal, margined with purple. Fruit size of a pigeon's egg, 6-ribbed, yellow. Root-stock globose, 1ft. diam., under cultivation. (Hooker). Seeds angular. (Trimen.)

Uses : — The root-stock is intensely bitter when raw. It is full of starch, which, when prepared, is of excellent culinary properties, and is far preferable to that of any other arrowroot for dysentery.

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