Cissus quadrangularis

• Botanical Name : Cissus quadrangularis L.
• Synonyms : Vitis quadrangularis (L.) Wall.ex Wight & Arn.
• Common Name : Hadsankal, Devil's backbone, Veldt Grape
• Plant Family : Vitaceae

• Ampelidaceae is the another name sometimes found in the older literature and is treated as the synonym of Vitaceae. However, Vitaceae is the conserved name.

• Plant Form : Succulents
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 13, 18, 19, 21
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park, Van Chetana Kendra

About Cissus quadrangularis Plant :

• Habit : A large succulent.
• Stem : Long, fleshy, deep green, glabrous, quadrangular, young branches sharply angular or winged, tendrils long, simple.
• Leaves : Deciduous, ovate or reniform sometimes 3-7 lobed, denticulate, base rounded, stipules ovate.
• Inflorescence : Umbellate cymes.
• Flowers : Calyx cup-shaped.Petals 4, ovate-oblong, hooked at apex, disk 4-lobed.Stamens 4, anthers introrse.Ovary bilocular, cells 2-ovuled, style short.
• Fruit : Berry red, globose, seed solitary.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : June - July
• Significance :
  • It is cultivated as hedge plant as well as in gardens.
  • The young stems eaten in curries.
  • The juice of the stem is used in scurvy.
  • The pulp of the stems employed on broken and fractured bones and swellings.
  • It is also useful in eye diseases and chronic ulcers.