Occurrence (Special Areas) :
Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra, Infocity, Basan
About Cocculus hirsutus Plant :
Habit : A straggling scandent twiner, young parts full of long weak hairs (villous) branches marked with grooves or ridges.
Leaves : Ovate-oblong, hastate, obtuse or subacute with a sharp short point, subcordate at a base, with soft hairs on both sides, petioles densely hairy.
Inflorescence : Small axillary cymose panicles.
Flowers :
Male flowers appear first in small axillary cymose panicles, pedicels slender, bracts minute, hairy.
Sepals 6 in 2 series; oblong-ovate, the 3 inner larger.
Petals 6, shorter than the sepals, embracing the stamens, thinly membranous, auricled.
Stamens 6 embraced by the petals, anthers subglobose, bursting transversely.
Female flowers appear late in axillary clusters of 2-3 together.
Petals larger than the male flowers, thick and fleshy, divided at the apex into two triangular lobes with swollen bases, claw hairy.
Ovaries 3, smooth, stigma tapering, thick and reflexed.
Fruits : A drupe, size of a small pea, keeled and transversely wrinkled. Seeds horse-shoe shaped.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : December
Significance :
Common in hedges everywhere.
Leaves and roots used to allay irritation, fever and rheumatism.
The juice of leaves taken internally as cure for gonorrhoea.
