Carissa oppositifolia (Lam.) Pichon

 
  • Family : APOCYNACEAE
    (Dogbane Family)
  • Family (Hindi name) : KARONDA FAMILY (करौंदा फैमिली)
  • Family (as per The APG System IV) : Apocynaceae
  • Synonym(s) : Acokanthera lamarckii G.Don; Cestrum oppositifolium Lam.; Acokanthera longiflora Stapf; Acokanthera rhodesica Merxm.; Acokanthera venenata (Burm.f.) G.Don; Carissa acokanthera Pichon; Carissa longiflora (Stapf) G.H.M.Lawr.; Pleiocarpa hockii De Wild.; Toxicophlaea cestroides A.DC.; Toxicophlaea thunbergii Harv.; Garcinia sciura Spirlet; Cestrum fasciculare Otto ex Dunal; Cestrum venatorium E.Mey. ex Sond.; Cestrum venenatum Burm.f.; Cestrum venenatum Thunb.
  • Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Acokanthera oppositifolia (Lam.) Codd
  • Habit : Shrub or Tree
  • Key identification features : Much-branched evergreen shrub, at times scrambling, or small tree, 1–6 m; Young branches with reddish tinge, glabrous, conspicuously angled, ribbed; Leaves coriaceous, glabrous, 4.6–10.6 x 1.8–6.7 cm, obovate, occasionally elliptic, apex acute, cuspidate or obtuse with hard mucro, upper surface glossy with midrib impressed, lateral nerves characteristically reaching the margin without looping to join neighbouring nerves, midrib of lower surface, petiole wrinkled; Inflorescence axillary, very plentiful, dense, many-flowered cyme; Flowers fragrant with pink or reddish corolla tube, white lobes, anthers 1.1–1.4 mm long, visible in the mouth of the corolla tube at anthesis, ovary ellipsoid, smooth; Fruit an ellipsoid berry 12–20 mm long, purple when ripe; Seeds 6.5–10 mm long.
  • Flower, Fruit : July-August
  • Distribution :
    • Kerala : BGL
  • Native : Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  • Exotic/Native : Exotic
  • World Distribution : Kenya to S. Africa
  • Literature :
    • Photographs of K. Sankara Rao
  • Read more :
  • Permalink : https://indiatrees-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Carissa oppositifolia
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2026). India Trees and Vegetation Types. Carissa oppositifolia. Downloaded on 3 October 2026.

Distribution District wise

India Distribution

World Distribution
Creative Commons License
India Trees and Vegetation Types by Herbarium JCB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.