Callicarpa candicans (Burm.f.) Hochr.

Family

Verbenaceae

Synonyms

Callicarpa cana L.

Vernacular Names

Geographical Distributions

Callicarpa candicans is distributed from southern China westward to eastern India and southward throughout Southeast Asia to tropical parts of Australia and the Pacific.

Description

Callicarpa candicans is an evergreen shrub or small tree which can reach up to 1-4(-6) m tall. Its hairy stem and branches are greyish-brown.

The leaves are very variable, elliptical-oblong, lance-shaped or ovate-rotundate, measuring (7-)10-20 cm x (2.5-)4-9(-11) cm, with wedge-shaped base, shortly acuminate at apex, with serrate-dentate margin, glandular and densely star-shaped hairy beneath and pubescent above when young. The petiole is 0.6-3(-4) cm long while the cyme is star-shaped and hairy. The primary peduncle is shorter than the petiole and measures 0.5-1 cm long.

The flowers are subsessile, with minutely 4-toothed sepal, measuring 1-1.5 mm long, glandular, star-shaped and hairy outside. The petal is mauve or violet, with tube 2 mm long, with broadly ovate lobes, measuring 3-3.5 mm long, with a few glands and exserted stamens. The ovary is spherical, hairless, glandular all over, with exserted style and measuring 5-6 mm long. The drupe is depressed globular, measures 2 mm in diametre, almost succulent, smooth, glandular, mauve, purple or deep red.

Ecology / Cultivation

Callicarpa candicans is found in grasslands, brushwoods, thickets, village groves and secondary forests, from sea level up to 1000 m altitude.

Line Drawing / Photograph

References

1. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2.