Common name: Divine Jasmine, Tamilnadia • Marathi: Kalaphendra • Tamil: Wagatta, Kalikarai • Malayalam: Pindichakka, Malankara • Telugu: Kuka-elka
Botanical name: Tamilnadia uliginosa Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family) Synonyms: Gardenia uliginosa, Catunaregam uliginosa, Randia uliginosa, Gardenia pomifera
Divine jasmine is a very rigid, ramous, small tree, armed with numerous
strong thorns, delights in bogs, swamps, banks of rivers and other moist
places. Flowering time the beginning of the hot season, or, in some
measure, all the year. The flowers of this species, as well as the beauty
of the entire shrub, render it deserving of a conspicuous place in the
flower garden. Trunk ill defined, covered with a dark rust-colored scabrous
bark. Branches erect, rigid, four-cornered, thick set with short, rigid
round, diverging branchlets. Short lateral shoots, each of which terminally
produces one or two pairs of short thorns. Leaves opposite on young shoots,
or fascicled at the end of branchlets, short-petioled, oblong, shining,
entire, 2-3 inches long by 1.5 inch broad. Flowers 1-3 upon their proper
short peducles at the extremeties of the branchlets, large, white, and
fragrant. Calyx above, tubular, obtusely five-toothed, permanent. Berry 4
cm across, globose or ovoid solitary ; stalk 2 cm long ; seeds many,
embedded in the pulp.
Identification credit: Milind Sardesai
| Photographed in Alibag, Maharashtra. |
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