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Plumeria
rubra L.
Synonym : Plumeria jamesonii
Hook
Family
: Apocynaceae
Local Names
: Ezhachempakam, Pagoda tree,
Temple tree
Flowering
and fruiting period:
November – April
Distribution: Native of Tropical
America; widely naturalised elsewhere in the tropics
Habitat: Cultivated as
ornamental plants
IUCN
status:
Data Deficient
Endemic: No
Uses: Ornamental. It has
anti-fertility, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective and
antimicrobial activities. It has been used in the folk medicine systems of
civilizations for the treatment however as abortifacient, drastic, purgative,
blennorrhagia, used in toothache and for carious teeth
Key
Characters:
Plumeria rubra are deciduous trees. Leaves simple, alternate spiral, clustered;
latex milky; lamina obovate-spathulate, apex acuminate or acute, margin entire.
Flowers bisexual, in terminal corymbose stout cymes; calyx cupular; lobes 5;
corolla, pink or cream with yellow centre;
