Flora of Bangladesh

Ghetkochu or Bengal Arum ( Typhonium trilobatum , family: Araceae) is a soft, tuberous herb, attaining a height of 25-40 cm, found here and there in the country. it is found growing in damp or wet places, fallow lands and beside the paths. Though it is not a popular vegetable in the country, but people from different parts of the country consume its leaves, stalks and tubers. Apart from Bangladesh or Greater Bengal, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Southeast China, North Malaysia are the original habitat of the plant. It is naturalized in the Philippines, West Borneo, Singapore, West Africa and tropical America.  Other names : Ghatkol, Ghetkol, Kharkol, Kharkeli, Ghekul, Kharkun, Chamghash, (Bangla); Harbaz (Chakma); Mohras (Marmara);  Harbait (Tanchangya).  Ghetkochu is quite beautiful to look at—especially the shape of its leaves. Like other members of the Kachu (Arum) family, it has fewer leaves, mostly 5 to 6. Its leaves, however, vary—from arrow-shaped to 3-lobed; 5 lobes c...

Horgoja or Sea Holly ( Acanthus ilicifolius , family: Acanthaceae) is an evergreen spinous mangrove shrub with semi-woody base and shallow tap-roots, attaining a height of 3 m. Its green stems and branches have dark brown spots. Stems, as well as leaves, have long strong spines. In the urge of life it is sometimes seen to produce stilt roots. They live together like colonies in the brackish mud of the sea. The salt-tolerant plant can be found throughout the mangrove-habitated Southern coasts of Bangladesh. The armed plant is also found in South and Southeast Asian countries, like Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Malaysia and in Northern Australia and Polynesia. Other names: Hargoja, Horkuch kata (Bangla), Holly-leaved Acanthus, Holly Mangrove (Eng), Harikush (Sans). Having unusual pattern and vigorous, acute spines the leaves may remind us of the leaves of Creeping thistle ( Cricus arvensis ). These are strange, crooked, shiny green and unevenly multi-lobed; 6-12 cm l...

Bon-jui or Glory bower ( Volkameria inermis , Lamiaceae) is a semi-erect beautiful mangrove shrub, attaining a height of 3-4 m. The salt-tolerant plant's stem is woody. Yong shoots, petiols, leaf blades are usually glabrous but sometimes covered with minutely hairs.  Its geographical extent is quite large. It can be found in the countries of East Asia as well as South and Southeast Asia. It can also be found in Australia and Pacific Islands, such as New Guinea too. In Bangladesh, the flowering plant is found standing beside the muddy, wet and saline soils of cannals and other waterbodies of mangrove forests or edge of mangrove forests. In the country, it has long been planted as an ornamental shrub along roadsides and road islans. In some places it is also used as a hedge in gardens.        Other names:  Koklota, Bakri, Batraj, Chitka bhat (Bang); Garden quinine, Seaside clerodendron.  The shrub's richness is due to the leaves. These are quite beauti...

Keya or Fragrant screw-pine ( Pandanus odorifer , family: Pandanaceae) is a robust and erect shrub or small-sized tree, branching from different spots of the stem, found throughout the coastal regions of South and Southeast Asia, Australia and Polynesia. In Bangladesh this bushy and spiny plant can be seen in the sandy sea-shores and canal-side areas of Bangladesh. It is found abundantly in St. Martin's Island. Nowadays the palm-like tree is cultivated in different spots of Chattogram. The tree can attain a height of 4-5 m.  The trunk of the tree is supported by brace roots. Trunk is slender and brown with many rounded scars and thick spines. The stem and branches are quite creepy looking, though the drooping leaves are eye-catching indeed. The flowers are strong-scented and the fruits are quite interesting to look at. Wood is very soft inside and quite hard outside.  Other names: Keya kanta, Kewra (Bangla), Keya kathal, Keteki phul (Assamese), Ketaki (Sans), Large screw pi...

Soborjala or Climbing Croton ( Croton caudatus , family: Euphorbiaceae) is a stout bushy vine, can be up to 25 meters in length and the stem can be get 4 cm in diameter. But in most places it usually does not grow more than 2 meters and exists as a small scandent shrub. Branches are slender and stout. The plant smells a bit like Black pepper (Piper nigrum). Young shoots covered with short and large stellate hairs.   It is found mainly in Gajipur, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Chattogram and Chattogram Hill Tracts. Outside of Bangladesh, it is found in the Indian subcontinent, China and some countries in South and Southeast Asia. The bushy climber can live up to 10 years approximately. Local names : Nanvantui, Nanbhantur. Leaves are entire, narrowly to broadly ovate, 5-9 cm long , 2-6 cm wide, petiole .5-2.5 cm long with densly stellate hairs, irregularly dentate or crenate-dentate, hairy to subglabrous on both sides, obtuse or acute at the end. Midrib and main veins stellate-h...