Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Hemidesmus indicus

(Hemidesmus indicus)

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Description

Hemidesmus indicus, Indian sarsaparilla ((Tamil: நன்னாரி “nannaari”/ நன்நெட்டி “nannetti”, Telugu: నన్నారి Malayalam: നറുനീണ്ടി, Kannada: ಹಾಲುಬಳ್ಳಿ Haaluballi, क्षीरिणी Kshirini, कराला Karala,اُشبا Punjabi),(sinhala: ඉරමුසු Iramusu)) is a species of plant that is found in South Asia. It is a slender, laticiferous, twining, sometimes prostrate or semi-erect shrub. Roots are woody and aromatic. The stem is numerous, slender, terete, thickened at the nodes. The leaves are opposite, short-petioled, very variable, elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate. The flowers are greenish outside, purplish inside, crowded in sub-sessile axillary cymes. It occurs over the greater part of India, from the upper Gangetic plain eastwards to Assam and in some places in central, western and South India. The root is a substitute for sarsaparilla (the dried root of the tropical species of Smilax, Smilacaceae; in India Smilax aspera L., and Smilax ovalifolia Roxb.). It should be distinguished from American Sarsaparilla Smilax aristolochiifolia Mill. and Jamaican Sarsaparilla Smilax ornata Hook.f..

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Gentianales
Family:Apocynaceae
Genus:Hemidesmus
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