Common name: Ranabili • Hindi: Nalbila • Marathi: Ranabili, Gudmai • Tamil: Puilipan cheddi • Malayalam: Kaipanarangi, Potti, Pulippanchedi • Kannada: Narsullu, Chitunde, Karbe • Urdu: Ranabili
Botanical name: Cipadessa baccifera Family: Meliaceae (Neem family) Synonyms: Melia baccifera, Cipadessa fruticosa
Ranabili is a shrub 1-4 m tall, with coarse bark. Young branches are
grayish brown, ribbed, and covered with yellow velvety hairs and sparse
grayish white lenticels. Leaves are compound, 8-30 cm long, with
leaf-stalk and spine either hairless or yellow velvety. Leaflets are
usually 9-13, opposite, ovate to ovoid-oblong, 3.5-10 × 1.5-5 cm. Flowers
are born in clusters 8-15 cm long. Flowers are white, 3-4 mm in diameter.
Flower stalks are 1-1.5 mm long. Sepal cup is short, yellow velvety
outside. Sepals are broadly triangular. Petals are white or yellow, linear
to oblong-elliptic, 2-3.5 mm, outside covered with sparse appressed
velvety hairs. Stamens are shorter than petals, with hairy filaments.
Fruit is purple to black when mature, round, 4-5 mm in diameter.
Flowering: April-October.
Medicinal uses: Juice of the root is given in cases of indigestion.
It is also used in treating cough and cold. A paste of bark is pressed against
the teeth for about 15 mins to relieve bleeding and swelling of gums.
Identification credit: Navendu Pāgé & Shaista Ahmad
| Photographed at Cauvery riverside, Bangalore. |
|