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Velvety Beauty Berry
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Velvety Beauty Berry
ative Photo: Pravin Kawale
Common name: Velvety Beauty Berry, French mulberry of the Western Ghats, great woolly Malayan lilac • Kannada: ಆರತಿ ಗಿಡ aarati gida, ದೊಡ್ಡ ನಾತದ ಗಿಡ dodda nathada gida, ಇಬನ್ನೆ ಗಿಡ ibanne gida, ಪಾಂಡವರ ಬತ್ತಿ Pandavara batthi, ಋಷಿಪತ್ರಿ rishipathri, ಆರ್ದ್ರಿ Ardri, ರುಚಿಕತ್ರಿ Ruchikatri • Konkani: ऐंसर ayamsar • Malayalam: നായ്‌ക്കുമ്പിൾ nay-kkumpi • Marathi: ऐसर aisar, हेसूर hesur • Sanskrit: प्रियङ्गु priyangu • Tamil: காட்டுக்குமிழ் kattu-k-kumil • Telugu: బోడిగచెట్టు bodiga chettu • Tulu: ಆರತಿದ ತಪ್ಪು aarathida thappu Source: Names of Plants in India
Botanical name: Callicarpa tomentosa    Family: Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Synonyms: Callicarpa lobata, Callicarpa villosa, Callicarpa wallichiana
Velvety Beauty Berry is a large shrub or small tree about 5 m tall. Bark grey, smooth. Branchlets are quadrangular, densely velvety. Leaves are simple, opposite, carried on stalks 2.5-7.5 cm long, densely white velvety. Leaf blade is 10.5-25 x 5.5-15 cm, elliptic to broadly elliptic or ovate, tip pointed to long-pointed, base narrow, thinly leathery, glaucous, densely white velvety beneath. Secondary nerves and reticulation are impressed above, midrib raised above. Secondary nerves are 6-9 pairs. Inflorescence consists of branched cymes in leaf axils. Flowers are purple, stalkless. Fruit is a round drupe, black, shining, 4 pyrenes; seeds 3-4. Velvety Beauty Berry is found in open disturbed evergreen to semi-evergreen forests in Peninsular India and Sri Lanka, and throughout Western Ghats, up to 1400 m.
Identification credit: Pravin Kawale Photographed in Maharashtra & Karnataka.
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