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EUPHORBIACEAE
17. Macaranga peltata (Roxb.) Muell.-Arg. in DC. Prodr. 15: 1010. 1862. (Fig. 207).
Macaranga tomentosa Wight—Macaranga roxburghil Wight—Macaranga wightiana Baill.—
Mappa peltata Wight—Ricinus mappa Moon
Sinh. Bukenda, Kenda; Tarn. Vatta, Vattikanni. Vattittutti.
A small tree with stout, green branchlets covered with a glaucous bloom and marked with
large leaf and stipule scars when young; leaves simple, alternate, very large, 22.5—30 cm
long, broadly ovate, peltate with a round base, acuminate acute or caudate, entire, glabrous,
dark-green above, paler beneath, venation prominent beneath, translucent; petioles very long,
usually longer than the leaf, cylindrical, glabrous; stipules large, ovate, acuminate, reflexed, falling
early; flowers regular, unisexual, greenish, dioecious, apetalous in axillary panicles, bracts
broader than long and toothed; male flowers: very small in numerous, finely pubescent panicles;
sepals 3 or 4, valvate in bud; stamens 2—5, filaments distinct, anthers 4-loceIlate,pistillode absent,
female flowers: calyx 2—4 lobed; ovary superior, unilocular with a single ovule, exserted;
densely glandular, style large, short, lateral and peltate; fruit capsule small, 6—8 mm diameter,
globose, glabrous but waited with glands.
Flowers in October.
Illustrations. Wight, Ic. PI. Ind. Orient, pi. 817. 1843—45; pi. 1949, Jigs. I & 4.
1853; Beddome, Flor. Sylvat. pi. 287. 1868—73; Kirtikar and Basu, Indian Med. Plants, pi. 877.
1933; Herb. Peradeniya., drawing.
Distribution. Grows from Concan to Travancore in India and abundant in moist regions
of Ceylon up to 3000 feet altitude.
India. Malabar, Concan, etc. Stocks, Law, etc.. Pen. Ind. Orient., Herb. Wight 2632,
Kew Distribution 1866—68. Ceylon, Thwaites CP. 2171 Central Prov , Peradeniya, Bot. Gard.,
Javaweera 1476, Jan. 1956.
Uses. The hardened, gummy exudation from this tree is powdered, made into a paste
and applied externally on venereal sores.
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