Melastoma malabathricum L.

Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Shrub

Flower blooms during February to June. Fruit ripes during November to December.

Flowering: February-August. Fruiting: July-December.

Flowering and fruiting: Throughout the year

A shrub with mush branched,hard, 4-angled stem ; young one armed with rigid, wedge shaped spinous outgrowth. Leaves simple, opposite, decusate, one of a pair sometimes smaller than other, broad , ovate-lanceolate, coriacious, hispid; usually with 5 palmate veins.Flowers in terminal dichasial cymes, pink. Stamens yellow, large,10 of which 5 are straight and other five are bent. Fruit a loculicidal capsule. It is found generally in waste land, flood plains, sandy banks of the river and in degraded forests.

Shrubs, up to 4 m tall; stems strigose with long subulate scales; branches terete, tender branches angular. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; petioles ca. 0.8-2 cm long, strigose; lamina ca. 5-15 x 2-8 cm, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, rounded at base, acute or shortly acuminate at apex, entire, appressed hairy above, strigose on main nerves beneath; secondary nerves 3-5 pairs. Flowers in clusters of 1-8 at the end of branches, ca. 5-6 cm across, purple; bracts large, elliptic or lanceolate, scaly outside; calyx ca. 1-1.5 cm long, densely silky; lobes ovate, acute; petals ca. 1.5-2.5 cm, large, broadly obovate; larger stamens purple, smaller yellow. Fruits ca. 0.7-1 cm across, purple, subglobose-ovoid, tuncate at apex, succulent, densely squamose strigose.

Notes: Western Ghats, Riparian, Evergreen Forests

Grasslands, scrub jungles, thickets, open forests, bamboo forests, trailsides

Common in open forests, secondary forests, road-sides, 200-900 m.

Stream banks and marshy areas

Roots and leaves are used as medicine. Ripe fruits are eaten. In this plant generally preying moths prefer to lay eggs which are look like foam in early stages. It is there fore proverbial "phutukar phan" i.e. meaningless or "phutukani" i.e.scrub forest come out.

The young shoots are eaten as a fresh or cooked vegetable. The fruit yields a black or purple dye. The leaves and roots yield a pink dye. The ashes from the plant can be used as a mordant. A tar obtained from the wood is used for blackening the teeth.

Medicinal

The plant is often used medicinally in Asia, where it is particularly valued for its astringent properties. A decoction of the leaves either alone or in combination with other plants, is used in the treatment of stomach aches, indigestion, diarrhoea dysentery, and leucorrhoea. The ground up leaves are applied externally as a compress to cuts, wounds and swellings. A strong decoction of the leaves is applied painful arthritic joints, and also to weeping sores caused by stinging insect hairs in order to aid extraction of the hairs. It is also applied to other types of weeping wounds in order to disinfect them. A decoction of roots and leaves is given to women after childbirth. The powdered leaves and roots may be sprinkled on wounds. They are also used in an application for haemorrhoids, apparently for their astringent properties. The roots are simply sucked or may be used for making a gargle in treating toothache.