Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/532

Vern. : — Mándá (Mar.) ; Ts-iagri-nuren (Mal.) ; Shendurvel (Bomb.) ; Padimuskir (Gond) ; Pandigada (Tel.).

Habitat : — Throughout tropical India.

Herbs, with large tuberous root-stocks. Root tubers 5-6ft. long. Stem slender, glabrous, more or less prickly, especially towards the base, often tuberiferous in the leaf axils. Leaves alternate, 3-5-foliolate glabrous, or sparsely pubescent beneath. Petiole, l-4in. ; leaflets 2-6in., shortly petiolate, oval, obovate or lanceolate, acuminate, cuspidate or subcaudate, membranous ; base acute, lateral oblique at the base. Male flowers in very slender racemes, l½in. long, which are solitary or binate on a very slender, flexuous tomentose rhachis, 6-12in. long. Bracts very broad, apiculate, membraneous, much shorter than the flowers. Perianth about 1/15in. diam. ; segments glabrous or sparsely pubescent, broadly ovate, obtuse. Stamens 3 ; anthers subsessile ; staminodes 3, minute ; pistillode 3-lobed. Female flowers in axillary, flexuous, pendulous, tomentose spikes, 2-6in. long. Perianth segments broader than in the male. Staminodes 3, minute. Stigmas spreading, linear ; fruit ¾-lin. long, quadrately oblong, retuse at both ends, glabrous ; seeds ½in. long, wing terminal, longer and broader than the short, oblique nucleus. Flowers pale greenish, fragrant tubers edible. (Trimen).

Uses : — The tubers are sometimes used to disperse swellings. (Dymock.) Also used as a tonic.

Vern.: — Már-páspoli (Bomb.); Piska (Santali) ; Aretige, tegálu, avatenga tige (Tel.) ; Girs konda, sut konda (Gond).

Habitat: — Tropical India, from Assam, Silhet and Chittagong, southwards to Ceylon.