Grewia villosa

• Botanical Name : Grewia villosa Willd.

• The generic name is given in the honour of one of the founders of plant physiology, Nehemiah Grew. The specific name comes from a latin word which means bearing long weak hairs.

• Common Name : Mallow Raisin, Mallow-Leaved Ross Berry, Round Leaf Grewia
• Plant Family : Tiliaceae
• Plant Form : Shrub
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park

About Grewia villosa Plant :

• Habit : A stellately hairy deciduous shrub.
• Leaves : Simple, dentate margin, valvetely villous beneath, round, opposite.
• Flowers :
  • Flowers whitish-yellow coloured in leaf-opposed or axillary fascicles, bracteate, bracts elliptic-laceolate, stellate tomentose on both sides.
  • Sepals oblanceoate, villous outside, acute.
  • Petals narrowly obovate, claw minute with indistinct pit, densely ciliate around gland, dull yellow, emarginated to retuse.
  • Stamens 25-30. Ovary globose, densely covered with antrorse hairs, stigma 4-lobed.
• Fruits : Drupes globose, stellately hairy, orange coloured, 1-2 seeded.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : August - November
• Significance :
  • The root is known to be used as a remedy for diarrhoea.
  • The juice of the bark is used in urinary troubles, irritation in the bladder and gonorrhoea.
  • The fruits of the plant are also eaten.