Acta Botanica Hungarica 54(34), pp.

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DOI: 10.1556/ABot.54.2012.34.18

NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SALACIA

RETICULATA (HIPPOCRATEACEAE) IN INDIA
P. S. UDAYAN1 and A. K. PRADEEP2
1

Department of Botany, Sree Krishna College, Ariyannur, P. O. Guruvayur

Thrissur District, Kerala 680 102, India; E-mail: psudayan@rediffmail.com,
sreekrishnacollegeguruvayur@yahoo.co.in
2
Department of Botany, Calicut University Herbarium, Kerala 673 635, India; E-mail:
akpradeep1@rediffmail.com
(Received 23 May, 2011; Accepted 15 September, 2011)

The name, Salacia reticulata Wight (Hippocrateaceae) had been applied to different elements
by different authors in India. The occurrence of S. reticulata in India is shown to be doubtful.
Key words: Hippocrateaceae, India, Salacia reticulata, taxonomy

INTRODUCTION
The genus Salacia L. comprises about 200 species, mainly distributed in
tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere (Mabberley 2008). Among them,
21 species occur in India, of which 7 species have their distribution in the state
of Kerala (Ramamurthy and Naithani 2000, Ramamurthy and Venu 2005, Sasidharan 2004). The extensive explorations in Kerala during the last four years
for the documentation of Salacia L. have resulted in the collection of six species,
S. beddomei Gamble, S. chinensis L., S. fruticosa Heyne ex Lawson, S. macrosperma Wight, S. malabarica Gamble and S. oblonga Wall. ex Wight et Arn. (Figs
112). However, we were not able to locate the well-known source plant of the
raw drug Ekanayakam (Malayalam) or Pitika (Sanskrit), S. reticulata anywhere in South India. A detailed study in consultation with specimens deposited in various Indian herbaria and live collections from South India revealed
the name S. reticulata Wight has been misapplied by various authors (Lakshminarasimhan and Srivastava 1993, Nayar et al. 2006, Ramamurthy and Naithani 2000, Ramamurthy and Venu 2005, Saldanha and Gurudev 1996) to spe02366495/$ 20.00 2012 Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest

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UDAYAN, P. S. and PRADEEP, A. K.

cies, such as S. macrosperma Wight, S. fruticosa Heyne ex Lawson and S.

beddomei Gamble. S. reticulata is rather misunderstood and possibly do not occur in India. This paper deals with the identity of Salacia reticulata from India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES OF GENUS SALACIA

1a

Tender branchlets reddish; leaves greenish-yellow when dry; flowers

campanulate; petals not spreading; ovary much exerted from the disc
S. oblonga

1b

Tender branchlets green or purplish; leaves not greenish-yellow when

dry; flowers salver form; petals spreading; ovary nearly embedded in the
disc
2

2a

Petals clawed at base

2b

Petals without claws at base

3a

Fruits oblong, verrucose

3b

Fruits ovate or globose, smooth

4a

Pedicels 1418 mm long

4b

Pedicels 47 mm long

S. beddomei

5a

Flowers yellow; petals sub-rotund; fruits globose

S. fruticosa

5b

Flowers greenish-yellow; petals ovate; fruits irregularly ovate

S. macrosperma

S. chinensis

S. malabarica

The detailed taxonomic studies reveals that Salacia reticulata was originally described by Robert Wight (1840) presumably based on a specimen collected by Colonel Walker (s.n., K, not seen) from Sri Lanka. It was obvious
from Wights (1840) original description that he was not certain about its occurrence in Malabar in South India. He states: The Malabar plant above alluded to may belong to this species, but is not in flower. The leaves are similar
in form but less distinctly reticulated, which may perhaps attribute to age, if
identical, the fruit is as large as a small apple, rough and warty on the surface,
and from it I have added with a doubt the character of the fruit. Since then,
Thwaites (1858) described yet another closely related species, Salacia diandra
from Sri Lanka (Type: C.P. 2720, CAL!), which differs from S. reticulata in having tetramerous flowers, 2 stamens and 2-locular ovary with 2 ovules in each
locule (floribus tetrameris, diandris, ovarium biloculare, loculis biovulatis).
Subsequently, M. A. Lawson reduced Thwaites S. diandra to a variety under S.

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NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF SALACIA RETICULATA IN INDIA

3
8

4
8

8
6

Figs 16. Salacia flowers and fruits: 1 = S. beddomei Gamble, flower, 2 = S. beddomei Gamble,
fruit, 3 = S. chinensis L., flower, 4 = S. chinensis L., fruit, 5 = S. fruticosa Heyne ex Lawson,
flower, 6 = S. fruticosa Heyne ex Lawson, fruit
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UDAYAN, P. S. and PRADEEP, A. K.

9
8

8
10

11

12

Figs 712. Salacia flowers and fruits: 7 = S. macrosperma Wight, flower, 8 = S. macrosperma
Wight, fruit, 9 = S. malabarica Gamble, flower, 10 = S. malabarica Gamble, fruit, 11 = S. oblonga
Wall. ex Wight et Arn., flower, 12 = S. oblonga Wall. ex Wight et Arn., fruit
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Fig. 13. Type specimen of Salacia diandra Thw. (C.P. 2720)

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UDAYAN, P. S. and PRADEEP, A. K.

Fig. 14. Type specimen of Salacia diandra Thw.

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Fig. 15. Type specimen of Salacia diandra Thw.

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UDAYAN, P. S. and PRADEEP, A. K.

retuculata Wight (Hooker 1875). It was evident from the description, the differences he might have noted was only its smaller number of stamens and differences in size and texture of leaves. Trimen (1893), after following Lawsons
infraspecific treatment, commented: I have little material for var. . [var.
diandra], which is probably a distinct species. Later Wadhwa (1996) while revising the family Hippocrateaceae for The revised handbook to the Flora of
Ceylon accepted S. diandra Thw. as a distinct species endemic to Sri Lanka.
It appears that Gambles (1928) treatment of S. reticulata as occurring in
Quilon in Travancore was solely based on Rama Rao (1914). A specimen
(C.P. 2720) (Figs 1315) available at CAL, annotated by Gamble as S. reticulata,
was incidentally the type of S. diandra Thw. Interestingly, the specimen with
its attached drawings (apparently drawn by Gamble) of its dissected flowers
clearly shows three stamens as opposed to the observation (diandris) made
by Thwaites (1858), while describing the species based on the same specimen.
Unfortunately no other specimens of S. reticulata consulted by Gamble anywhere from South India are known to be available in Indian herbaria.
The extensive explorations along the Western Ghats and coastal plains in
South India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands to study the genus Salacia during the last one decade, we were not able to locate S. reticulata Wight anywhere
in South India either in the wild or under cultivation. Many specimens of
Salacia in Indian herbaria with large tubercled or rough fruits were also
wrongly determined as S. reticulata. The occurrence of Salacia reticulata in India
is still doubtful. A detailed study in consultation with the relevant types indicate that whatever so far described as Salacia reticulata Wight in various regional Floras of Southern India belongs to some other species. It was evident
from the protologue of S. reticulata, Robert Wight (1840) himself was little
more doubtful of its occurrence in Malabar in South India as he had only a
specimen (from Malabar) that too in the vegetative stage with its leaves looking almost similar to his S. reticulata from Sri Lanka.
*
Acknowledgements The authors are thankful to Dr V. P. Prasad, IBLO, Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, for comments on the identity of the species; Dr M. Sanjappa, Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Kolkatta, Dr G. V. S. Murthy, Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Coimbatore, and Dr N. Sasidharan, Kerala Forest Research Institute, (KFRI), Thrissur for various
help; Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), Thiruvananthapuram for financial support; the authorities of Kerala State Forest Department for
permission for field visits and Mr Satheesh George, Arya Vaidya Sala, Kottakkal and Mr A.
J. Robi, Project Fellow, KFRI, Thrissur for assistance in the field.

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