လက်ထုတ်ကြီး

Myanmar Name – Lettok gyi

Common Name – Bitter Oleander, Conessi bark, Ester tree

Botanical Name – HolarrhenapubescensWall.ex.G.Don

Family Name – Apocynaceae

Habitat – Native in South Asia, including countries like India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In Myanmar, it can be found in various regions, particularly in dry deciduous forests, open scrublands, and along roadsides.

Habit – Small to medium-sized tree, reaching heights of up to 8-12 meters

Bark – Bark rough, pale brown, to 8 mm, exfoliates in small flakes; blaze creamy yellow; latex milky white

Leaves – Simple, opposite, elliptical, and typically about 10-20 cm long, dark green; petiole 4-6 mm, pubescent, stout; lamina 7-18 x 3-12 cm, broadly ovate, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate; base obtuse, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, glabrous.

Inflorescence – Cymose or corymbose, clusters, small and white, relatively small and tubular, with a typical length of around 2-3 cm and a width of approximately 1 cm.

Flower – Flowers bisexual, creamy-white, slightly fragrant, in terminal and axillary corymbose cymes, appear along with new leaves; calyx lobes 5, 2.5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate, ciliate, glandular within at base; corolla salvar shaped, lobes 5, oblong, obtuse, as long as the tube, tube 1.3 cm long, puberulous, mouth with a ring of hairs; stamens 5, included, attached towards the base of the corolla tube, anthers sagitate; disc absent; ovaries 2, apocarpous; ovules many in each carpel, style 2 mm long; stigma fusiform, bifid.

Fruit– Fruit of 2 terete elongated follicular mericarps connected at the tip and then free, 25 x 1 cm.

Seed – Seeds 8 mm, oblong, with tuft of silky brown hairs at the apex.

Flowering and Fruiting Time – Fruiting time form May to June and fruiting time from September to October.

Usage – It is used a medicinal plant, especially in diarrhoea and  dysentery. In addition, Intestinal worms, bodyache and treatment of malaria,