Cocculus pendulus (J. R. Forst. & G. Forst.) Diels

Quite common in the plains and up to c. 200 m. The juice of the leaves mixed with water has the property of coagulating into a green jelly like substance which is taken internally with sugar as a tonic. The roots and the leaves are used in rheumatic pains.

Scandent shrubs with long slender, puberulous branchlets. Stem up to 15 cm in diameter, branches c. 5-6 m long. Leaves 1.6-5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm broad; oblong-lanceolate, ovate or trapezoid, base truncate, cuneate, rounded or trilobed-hastate, apex obtuse, mucronate or emarginate, generally glabrous or slightly puberulous on both sides, basal nerves 3-5. Flowers minute. Male flowers in axillary panicles 0.5-2 cm long, with peduncles up to 1.5 cm long, pedicels 0.5 mm or absent; sepals ovate-elliptic, fleshy or membranous, thickened at the base, the outer 3,1-1.5 mm long, 0.4-0.7 mm broad, sparsely puberulous, the inner 3 larger, puberulous to glabrous; petals ovate-obovate, 0.8-2 mm long, 0.5-1 mm broad; stamens 0.8-1.5 mm long. Female flowers: 1-2 on short axillary peduncles, 0.7-1.3 cm long; carpels c. 1 mm long. Drupe reddish when fresh but turning black when dried, reniform, compressed, 4-7 mm long, 4-5 mm broad; endocarp ribbed on the lateral faces and without a prominent crest, not perforated in the centre. 2n=26.

Distribution: Tropical and subtropical India, Pakistan and Africa.

Fl. Per.: Almost throughout the year.