Botanical Name - Pueraria tuberosa

----- Pueraria, DC.; F.B.I. II-197. P. tuberosa, DC.; F.B.I. II-197. Brandi's Ind. Trees, 228. Gamble's Ind. Timbers, 245. Vern. Gorbel, Hind. Mar. Niala-gumodi, Tel.

----- A large tuberous-rooted deciduous climber. Bark grey, stringy, peeling off in vertical strings; young branches grey, pubescent; stem porus, producing large globose under-ground tubers; often 1 ft. in diam. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate; stalk 5-8 in. long. Leaflets 4-6 by 3-4 in. broad ovate, acuminate, silky pubescent when young, glabrescent above and thinly pubescent beneath when mature. Flowers bright blue in simple or panicled terminal racemes 6-12 in. long; bracts minute. Calyx-teeth long or short, the upper two connate. Corolla exserted; standard spurred at base, equal in length to keel and wings. Stamens monadelphousl; anthers uniform. Ovary sessile, many-ovuled. Pod 2-3 in. long, flat, flexible, 3-6-seeded, contracted between the joints, clothed with long bristle-like brown hairs.

----- Tolerably common; found wild in the forests and also cultivated. The large tubers have a liquorice taaste and are eaten and used in medicine for urinal and venereal complaints. The pretty blue flowers appear before the leaves about June and July. It is leafless for most part of the year, the leaves falling soon after the rains.