Hugonia mystax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hugonia mystax | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Linaceae |
| Genus: | Hugonia |
| Species: | H. mystax |
| Binomial name | |
| Hugonia mystax L. | |
Hugonia mystax is a species of plant in the family Linaceae found mainly in the dry forests of peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It is a scandent shrub, sometimes growing liana-like over other trees and bears yellow flowers and orange to red fruits in the rainy season. The branchlets are leafless at the base and instead have a pair of recurved spines which bear a resemblance to a moustache, giving rise to the epithet mystax, Latin for moustache.
The Tamil name, mothira-kanni, refers to the resemblance to a ring.[1] The roots of the plant are astringent and bittersweet, and are used to treat fevers, verminosis, and inflammations.[2]
The species is common in the dry scrub and tropical dry evergreen forests of peninsular India south from Maharashtra to Orissa.[3] It flowers according to the rains, twice a year in some parts of the peninsula.[4] The flowers are pollinated by Apis bees.[5] The fruits are eaten by birds and seeds may be dispersed by them.[6] The leaves are used in traditional medicine and used as an anti-inflammatory.[7]
