Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food- Fruit is eaten raw. The small, white spongy fruit is sweet and succulent when fully ripe. Medicine- Leaves are warmed and applied to rheumatic joints. Smoked to relieve headache. Seed-paste used in stomatitis. Wood paste used in mouth and tongue sores. Seeds and roots are employed as stomachic. Bark is used in rheumatism and diseases of genitourinary tract.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal
Thrives in mixed forests, at an elevation of 100-2000 m.
It is erect evergreen shrub growing up to 200 cm tall. Young parts covered with dense woolly hair.
Stem is densely covered with woolly hair on its young branches and leaf stalks.
Leaves are large, opposite, 10-25 cm long and 5-7.5 cm wide, with a lance-like shape and toothed edges. Dark green and smooth above, pale and densely woolly below. Leaf stalks 1-1.5 cm long.
Flowers are small, pink or reddish flowers in dense clusters in leaf axils. Clusters up to 5 cm long with stalks about 1-2.5 cm long.
Fruit is small, white, spherical about 0.2-0.3 cm in diameter.
Flowering and Fruiting: April-December.