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Large-Leaf Beauty Berry
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Large-Leaf Beauty Berry
E Native Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Large-Leaf Beauty Berry • Assamese: Bonmala, Tong-loti • Bengali: Massandar • Gujarati: લતાપ્રિયંગુ Latapriyangu • Hindi: बस्तरा Bastara, Bhirmoli, Dahiya, Daiya, प्रियंगू Priyangu • Kannada: ಱುಷಿಪತ್ರಿ Rushipatri, ಇಬ್ಬನಿ Ibbani • Konkani: ऐंसर Ayamsar • Malayalam: Chimpompil, chinpompil • Manipuri: ꯃꯣꯟꯗꯣꯜ ꯄꯥꯟꯃꯅꯥ Mondol panamana • Marathi: कानफुली Kanphuli, ऐसर Aesar • Nepali: दहीचाउँले Daheechaaunle, दहीकाम्लो Daheekaamlo, दहीचामल Daheechaamal, प्रियंगु Priyangu, दहीजालो Daheejaalo, गोल्दार Goldaar, गुएँलो Guyenlo, सुमाली Sumaalee • Sanskrit: प्रियङ्गु Priyangu • Tamil: காட்டுக்குமிழ் Kattu-k-kumil • Tibetan: Gandha priyanku
Botanical name: Callicarpa macrophylla    Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Synonyms: Callicarpa incana, Callicarpa cana, Callicarpa dunniana

Large-Leaf Beauty Berry is an erect, evergreen shrub, 1-2 m tall, densely woolly on young branches, lower surface of leaves, leaf-stalks and flower-cluster-stalks. Leaves are opposite, 10-25 cm long, 5-7.5 cm broad, ovate-lanceshaped to oblong-lanceshaped, tapering, rounded toothed, dark-green and becoming hairless above, pale or dull and densely woolly below; leaf-stalk 1.0-1.5 cm long. Flowers are borne in dense, dichotomously branched cymes in leaf-axils, up to 5 cm long, including 1 2.5 cm long flower-cluster-stalks. Flowers are about 4 mm across, pink or reddish. Calyx is about 1.7 mm long, bell-shaped, minutely 4-toothed, densely velvet-hairy. Flowers are about 2.5 mm long, with tube about as long as the calyx; limb somewhat 2-lipped, with 4, short lobes. Stamens are 4, prominently protruding out; anthers about 0.8 mm long, ovate-oblong. Fruit is spherical, 2-3 mm in diameter, whitish, with a hard endocarp, usually breaking into four, 1-seeded pyrenes. Large-Leaf Beauty Berry is found in the Himalaya, from Kashmir to Bhutan, India, Burma, S. China, Indo-China, at altitudes of 300-1500 m. It is also found in the evergreen forests of Western Ghats.
Medicinal uses: 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. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India indicated the use of the fruit in emesis and giddiness.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.

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