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CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Gentianales
FAMILY	: Apocynaceae
GENUS	: Wattakaka
SPECIES	: volubilis (L.F.) stapf.
BOTANICAL NAME	: Wattakaka volubilis (L.F.) stapf.
SYNONYMS	: Marsdenia volubilis (L.f.) Cooke
COMMON NAME	: Milk-Weed Climber, Green wax flower, Sneezing silk cotton, Sneeze Wort
TAMIL NAME	: Kaattu aavaarankodi, Kurinjaa, Kodipalai, Kurnica
HINDI NAME	: Nakchikni

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT:  Wattakaka volubilis (L.f.) Stapf Climbing shrub or liana

STEM:  stem water latex, corky.

LEAVES:  Leaves opposite, broadly ovate-suborbicular, 5 - 7 x 3.5 - 4.5 , cordate to rounded, truncate at base entire at, margin , acuminate at apex, puberulous; 4 - 5-pairs; petiole up to 3 cm long, 2-glandular near lamina; peduncle to 3 cm long, puberulous.

INFLORECENCE:  Umbellate solitary, axillary, up to 5 cm long.

FLOWERS:  Flowers ca. 6 mm across, greenish; pedicel 2.5 cm long. Calyx-lobe 5, 3 mm long, ovate-elliptic. Corolla 5; lobe 7 mm long, rotate; corona 5, flesh, adnate at staminal column free; anther erect. Ovary globose 1.4 mm, 2-locule; many ovules; white or brown hairy; style short, ca. 1.3 mm long; stigma flat. Follicles oblong-oblonceolate, 7.5 cm long, greenish-brown.

SEEDS:  seeds many, flattened, 6 mm long, smooth.

MEDICINAL USES

Leaves, flowers and the rind of unripe fruits are boiled and eaten as a vegetable or used in curries, the cooking removes the bitterness and nauseating property of fruits.

Plant yields a very strong fibre.

Twining stems are used as substitute for ropes.

Plant juice used as sternutatory; root and tender stalk emetic and purgative; leaf used in applications for boils and abcesses.

IMAGES

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