• Family : RUBIACEAE
  (Madder Or Coffee Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : COFFEE FAMILY (कॉफी फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : RUBIACEAE
• Basionym : Spermacoce villosa Sw.; Spermacoce hirta L.
• Synonym(s) : Mitracarpus verticillatus (Schumach.) Vatke
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Mitracarpus hirtus (L.) DC.
• Common name : Tropical Girdle Pod
• Vernacular name : Gothia gobi (Oria); Thaval (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Degraded moist deciduous forests and wastelands
• Comments / notes : Fairly common along roadsides
• Key identification features : Erect pubescent herb. Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate, glabrescent. Flowers small, sessile, white in dense axillary and terminal clusters. Fruit a capsule, circumscissile
• Flower, Fruit : Throughout the year
• Collection Nos : CJS 16004
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Chittoor district, Vishakapatnam district, Guntur district
  • Karnataka : All districts of Karnataka
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Odisha : Cuttack district, Bargarh district
  • Tamil Nadu : Sirumalai Hills (Dindigul district)
• World Distribution : India, Tropical Africa, America, Sri Lanka
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district, Karnataka; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara; Pullaiah et al., 2007 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 3; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 2; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Flora of Hassan district; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 - Flora of Bangalore district, Karnataka state; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; N.P.Singh, 1988- Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Manjunath et al., 2003 - Davanagere; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Mitracarpus villosus. Downloaded on 2 May 2024.

Botanical Description

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