Cocculus laurifolius DC.

Cocculus species are scandent or erect herbs, shrubs or small trees, monoecious. Leaves simple, alternate, non-peltate, entire or lobed. Flowers unisexual. Inflorescences cymose or thyrsoid, terminal or axillary. Male flowers, sepals 6-9, in 2-3 series, imbricate, the outer sepals smaller, petals 6, normally bifid or emarginated apex, auricled below, stamens 6-9, free, anthers subglobose, cells bursting transversely. Female flowers sepals and petals similar as in male flowers, staminodes 6 or absent, carpels 3-6, style subulate, cylindrical, reflexed. Fruits drupes curved, obovoid, laterally slightly compressed, style scar near the base, bony endocarp, transversely rigid above, perforate on both sides, Seed curved, endocarp faintly tubercled, endospermic, liguliform cotyledons.

Understorey trees in dry evergreen forests between 1200 and 1600 m.

Tree

Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Tree

Flowering and fruiting: October-July

Cocculus species are dioecious i.e., male (staminate) flowers on one plant, and female (pistillate) flowers on another plant. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects. Flowering/Fruiting: April-June/September-December.

Seeds may be dispersed by zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Evergreen erect shrubs or small trees, about 4-6 m tall. Bark grayish brown to dark brown, rough, stem angled, uniformly striate, branchlets glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, lanceolate-elliptic to oblanceolate-elliptic, 7-15 x 2.5-6 cm across, base cuneate or acute, margin entire, apex shallow acute, chartaceous, dark green, shining glabrous above, paler pubescent beneath, basal 3 strong veins, impressed above and beneath, almost parallel to the margins after the second half of the of the leaf lamina, petiole stout, wider near the base, glabrous, about 0.3-1 cm long. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, thyrsoid or cymose, bracts filiform. Male flowers in axillary, solitary or thyrsoid, yellow, glabrous, about 2-4 cm long, bracts subulate, puberulous, about 1 mm long, pedicels about 1 mm long, sepals 6 in 2 series, outer series subelliptic, about 0.75 mm long, inner series sepals, ovate to broadly ovate, about 1 mm long, petals 6, subcordate, apex emarginate, about 0.3-0.5 mm long, stamens 6, about 0.75 mm long. Female flowers pedicels about 5 mm long, staminodes 6, very small or minute, carpels 3, styles reflexed, slender, glabrous. Fruits drupes rotund, glabrous, black when ripe, slightly compressed, about 4-5 mm across, endocarp rugose, stony with curved aperture, ridged finely on dorsal surface.

Understorey trees in dry evergreen forests between 1200 and 1600 m.

Susceptible to insect pests and other pathogens.

Notes: Western Ghats, Evergreen Forests, Cultivated

Evergreen and shola forests

Grasslands, open forests, plantations and river banks, altitude up to 1500 m, also cultivated.

Swamps

Used as medicine for hair loss and as hair cosmetic. Used for making arrow poison. Wood used as fuel.