Malabar melastome - Melastoma Malabathricum

Common Name :	Malabar melastome, Indian rhododendron.
Botanical Name :	Melastoma malabathricum
Family :	Melastomataceae
Bengali Name :	Lutki, Datranga.
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Botanical name of the flower is Melastoma Malabathricum. Belongs to the plant family Melastomataceae. Common names are Malabar melastome, Indian rhododendron, etc. In Bengali this flower is known as Lutki, Datranga, etc. This plant is native to South Asia, East Asia, and Australia.





Malabar melastome (Melastoma Malabathricum) is an evergreen shrubby plant. Linear elliptic leafs are having similarity with the Bay leafs but these are rough and don't have any fragrance. Leafs are oppositely arranged and petiole of the leaf is reddish in color.





Malabar melastome (Melastoma Malabathricum) flowers are very beautiful and showy. Color of the flower is pink or magenta. It has five petals and the lifetime of the flower is only a single day. You can use the petals of this flower to stop the bleeding that caused by leech. Center of the flower is yellow (due to the stamens). Flower blooms in a small cluster.




The fruit has plenty of small seeds inside and the color is pink/black/magenta. During my childhood we used to eat this fruit (slightly sweet) while we were playing around the jungle. If you eat the fruit it would color your tongue and the teeth. May be it's a reason to call this as Datranga (দাতরাঙ্গা) in Bengali which means colorful tooth. For your information the word Melastoma (genus name) means "Black Mouth" in Greek.




Photos of this article were taken from the following location of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh this flower is known as Datranga ful (দাঁতরাঙা ফুল), lutki ful (লুটকি ফুল), etc.
1. September 2011: Moulvibazaar.
2. December 2012: Birishir, Netrakona.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/