Niepa Bark Tree is an evergreen tree or shrub up to
10 m tall. Leaves are elliptic-oblong, somewhat pointed-rounded at
base, pointed to tapering at tip, leathery, hairless, shining,
netveined. Leaf-stalks are 1-2 cm long, stout. Flowers are 20 or more
in umbel-like hairless or finely velvet-hairy clusters.
Flower-cluster-stalks are 7-30 cm long, stout, flat, thick-above;
Flower-stalks are 1-1.5 cm long, to 3 cm in fruit, jointed at base;
bracts minute. Calyx 2-3 cm long, 4-lobed; sepals semiround, thick,
finely velvet-hairy outside. Petals are 4, free,
oblong-inverted-lanceshaped, blunt, 1-2 x about 0.5 cm, dorsally
velvet-hairy, white, pale yellow or purplish. Stamens are 8,
velvet-hairy. Anthers oblong-lanceshaped, 2-3 mm long; filaments finely
velvet-hairy. Ovary is about 2 mm across, finely velvet-hairy; styles
to 2 cm long, hairless. Fruits are 1-4 together, flat, smooth,
glandular and netveined. Niepa Bark Tree is found in India, Myanmar and
Sri Lanka. Flowering: All year.
Medicinal uses: The tree is considered to have
medicinal properties in Ayurved. The bark and wood are stomachic,
emmenagogue, febrifuge tonic. The leaves are useful in erysipelas and
pruritus. The seed oil is astringent, acrid, thermogenic, depurative,
emetic, purgative and febrifuge. It is useful in vitiated conditions of
vata kapha, leprosy, scabies, pruritus, skin diseases, constipation and
bilious fever.
Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag
Photographed in Pune, Maharashtra,
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The flower labeled Niepa Bark Tree is ...