FoI
Mountain Pomegranate   
Foto info
Mountain Pomegranate
N Native Tree
Photo: Prashant Awale
Common name: Mountain Pomegranate, Spiny Randia, False guava, Thorny Bone-apple, Common emetic nut • Hindi: मैनफल Mainphal • Marathi: घेला Ghela, Khajkanda • Tamil: Madkarai • Malayalam: Karacchulli • Telugu: Marrga • Kannada: Kaarekaayi-gida • Oriya: Patova • Sanskrit: Madanah
Botanical name: Catunaregam spinosa    Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)

Mountain Pomegranate is an armed shrub or small tree. Spines arise from leaf axil and are straight. Branchlets have soft hair on them. Leaves are 4.5-8 x 1.6-3.5 cm obovate, apex obtuse, base cuneate; hairy along nerves and nerve-axils beneath ; petiole 1-2 cm long. Leaves are oppositely arranged on horizontal branches. Flowers solitary or paired at the ends of arrested branchlets; stalks 5 mm long, smooth, often with small intermediate teeth in between. Flowers white, turning pale yellow ; flower-tube 1-1.2 cm long, narrow, petals 5, spreading, 1 cm long. Stamens 5, inserted on corolla tube. Filaments are short, anthers 2-celled. Fruit is 4x3 cm, ovoid, with persistent calyx like a pomegranate; seeds many. Flowering: May.
Identification credit: Prashant Awale
Photographed in Maharashtra.