Haryana Forest Flora
A Comprehensive Database of Ligneous Plants of Haryana (India)
Designed & Developed by Bioinformatics Centre,Forest Research Institute, Dehradun
| Family: Asclepiadaceae | Genus: Calotropis | Species: Calotropis gigantea (Linn.) Dryand. |
Habit |
Leaf |
Flower |
Fruit |
Bark |
|
|
| Synonym | Periploca cochinchinensis Lour., Calotropis gigantea (Linn.) R. Br. Ex Schult. | Flower Color | White |
| Common Name | Arka, Mudar, Ak, Safed Aak | Flower Type | Cyme |
| English / Trade Name | Crown Flower, Giant Indian Milkweed | Flowering Period | Jan-Dec |
| Vernacular /Local Name | Moto-Aak, Ak, Madar | Fruiting Period | Jan-Dec |
| Altitude | Up To 900 M | Fruit Type | Follicle |
| Habit | Shrub | Fruit Details | Fruit a follicles in pairs, boat-shaped with a hooked tip, cottony pubescent. Seeds broadly ovate, obtuse, shortly pubescent, brown; coma silky, white. |
| Habitat | Common by the wayside in wastelands, ready colonizer plains from the coast | Bark Type | Fissured |
| Distribution | India, Sri Lanka, China and Malesia | Bark Details | Bark yellowish white and furrowed |
| Distribution in Haryana | Ambala, Gurgaon, M. Garh, Yamuna Nagar | Origin | Native |
| Leaf Type | Simple | ||
| Leaf Arrangement | Opposite (leaves in pairs along stem) | ||
| Leaf Shape | Elliptic | ||
| Description of Species | An erect stout, large hoary-tomentose shrub. Bark smooth, whitish. Leaves elliptic ovate to obovate, with amplexicaule bases; apex obtuse or slightly acuminate. Flowers in umbellate or sub-corymbose cymes; peduncles fleshy, cottony pubescent, bracts lanceolate, acute, caducous, pubescent; pedicles in parts, terete, densely fulvous pubescent. Calyx-lobes cottony pubescent, broadly ovate, acute. Corolla ovoid in bud; tube short; lobes divided more than half way down, spreading, deltoid, ovate, acute, with revolute margins, glabrous. Gynostegium Pollinia ovoid, attached to the brown pollen-carrier by short caudicles. Corona of 5 fleshy, laterally compressed lobes, completely adnate to and shorter than staminal column; lobes glabrous, ciliolate on the margins, with a recurved spur at the base and two obtuse auricles just below the rounded apex. Ovaries glabrous, many-ovuled; style slender, glabrous; style thick. Fruit a follicles in pairs, boat-shaped with a hooked tip, cottony pubescent. Seeds broadly ovate, obtuse, shortly pubescent, brown; coma silky, white. | Leaf Details | Leaves elliptic ovate to obovate, with amplexicaule bases; apex obtuse or slightly acuminate. |
