Botanical name: Saurauia napaulensis    Family: Actinidiaceae (Kiwifruit family)

Gogan is a tree from the Himalayas, up 4-20 m tall. Branchlets are brown velvety to smooth. Leaf-stalks are 2.5-5 cm. Leaves are narrowly elliptic to oblong-obovate, 13-36 cm long, 7-15 cm broad, thinly leathery, sparsely rusty velvety below, smooth above, with prominent lateral veins 28-40 pairs, base blunt to rounded to wedge-shaped, margin finely toothed, tip long-pointed to pointed. Flowers are borne in clusters 12-33 cm long in leaf axils, carried on stalks about half as long as the cluster. with 1 or 2 bracts at base of each branch. Flower-stalks are 1.7-2.5 cm, with 2 nearly opposite bracteoles below middle. Flowers are pink to purplish, 0.8-1.5 cm in diameter. Sepals are unequal, outer 3 smaller, elliptic to broadly elliptic, inner 2 larger, broadly elliptic to circular, 5-7 mm. Petals are oblong, about 8 mm, fused at base, curled back at apex. Stamens are 50-90. Ovary is spherical, styles 4 or 5, fused below the middle. Fruit are green to yellowish, spherical to depressed-spherical, ribbed or slightly ribbed. Gogan is found in the Himalayas, from Garhwal to NE India, N. Burma, Thailand, Indo-China and W. China, at altitudes of 750-2100 m. Flowering: May-December.

Medicinal uses: The plant Lecanthus peduncularis is mixed with the bark of Saurauia napaulensis in equal amount and is pounded - the resultant juice, about 4 teaspoons a day, is given to relieve fever.

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The flower labeled Gogan is ...