Holmskioldia sanguinea Retz.

Straggling or climbing shrubs. Branches quadrangular. Leaves decussate-opposite, broadly ovate to deltoid, finely serrate, petiolate, exstipulate. Inflorescence terminal thyrse of lax cymes or racemes, bracts foliaceous, calyx campanulate, actinomorphic, 5-lobed, lobes coloured, accrescent, corolla infundibular, zygomorphic, 5-lobed, lobes brightly colored, posterior pair smallest, anterior lobe largest, corolla tube curved, stamens 4, didynamous, slightly exserted, filaments filiform, anthers ovoid, 2 loculed, thecae parallel, ovary superior, 4 lobed, 4 loculed, style slender, stigma 2 lobed, disc poorly developed, Fruit drupes, obovoid, slightly 4 lobed near the apex, exocarp juicy, mesocarp thin, endocarp hard, splitting into 4 pyrenes, seeds oblong, nonendospermous.

Holmskioldia species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects. Flowering/Fruiting: October-December/End of the cold and hot season; Almost throughout the year.

Seeds dispersed by barochory i.e., gravitational dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds and animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Shrub, straggling or liana up to 10-20 ft high. Bark dark brown or grey, smooth, peeling off in to narrow papery strips, branches and branchlets slender, acutely quadrangular, pubescent when young and glabrous when mature, nodes annulate. Leaves simple, opposite, broadly ovate-elliptic or broadly lanceolate, 4-11 x 2.5-7, base rounded to subcordate, margins finely crenate-serrate, apex acuminate or abruptly cuneate, chartaceous, lateral veins 4-7 on either side of the midrib, minutely pubescent above, pubescent on veins and gland-dotted beneath, ascending, margins arcuate, petiole slender, canaliculated about 1-3 cm long, exstipulate. Inflorescence cymose racemes, axillary and terminal, about 5 cm long, subtending petiole, bract ovate or elliptic, apex acute. Flowers bisexual, red, glabrous, pedicel about 1 mm long, calyx saucer shaped, minutely 5 toothed, red, yellow, orange, membranous, minutely pubescent or glabrous, about 2.5 cm long, corolla infundibular, 5 lobed, lobes obtuse, red, orange, or usually the same colour of the calyx, about 4 mm long, corolla tube narrow, cylindric, slightly ampliate towards the apex, pubescent, about 2 cm long, and 0.5 cm wide, stamens 4 didynamous to subequal, exserted, filaments slender, slightly hairy, about 1.5-2.5 cm long, anther oblong or ovoid, white, ovary conical, glabrous, style slender, filiform, almost same coloured as the calyx and corolla, about 1.5-2.5 cm long, stigma bi-lobed. Fruit drupe subglobose, about 1 cm in diameter, deeply 4 lobed at the apex, splitting into 4 pyrenes, seeds 1-4, verrucose, fruiting calyx accrescent, endocarp hard.

Susceptible to insect pests and moulds.

Notes: Plains to Mid Altitude, Cultivated, Native of Himalaya

Rocky ravines and river banks at an altitude below 3300 ft.

Cosmopolitian

Common

Used as fodder for goats and sheep. Used as ornamental.