Myxopyrum smilacifolium
Family: OLEACEAE
Habit: Climber
Habitat: Semi-evergreen and evergreen forests, also in sacred groves
Malayalam Name(s): Chathuramulla, Chathuravalli, Chathurakkodi
Flowering & Fruiting: February-August
Medicinal: Yes
Description: Twining shrubs; branches 4-angular. Leaves simple, opposite, 7-13 x 3-5 cm, elliptic-ovate or oblong, base rounded to subcordate, margins serrulate from the middle towards apex, apex acuminate, basally 5-nerved, subcoriaceous; petiole to 1.2 cm long. Flowers in axillary trichotomous short panicles, 4-merous, bisexual. Calyx 1-1.5 cm long, lobes 4. Corolla yellowish, tube 1-2 mm long; lobes 4. Stamens 2, included. Ovary 2-locular; ovules 1-2-per locule; stigma 2-lobed. Berry 1-1.5 cm across, globose, black; seeds 2.