Week and Your Plants – October 23 to 29
Zodiac sign : Libra / Thulam
Mimusops elengi (ഇലഞ്ഞി) – Sapotaceae
A good garden and avenue tree of evergreen nature. It is mainly used for dental ailments such as bleeding gums, pyorrhea, dental caries, etc. The flowers are used to make roseries/ mala.
October 23, Monday : Thiruvonam : Calotropis gigantea (എരുക്ക് ) - Apocynaceae
Shrubs with opposite broad thick leaves. Calotropis is used for conditions such as digestive disorders, toothache, cramps, joint pain, and many others like swellings. Spiritually significant as the flowers in Shiv pooja.
October 24, Tuesday : Avitam : Prosopis cineraria (വഹ്നി ) - Fabaceae
Thorny trees of costal and dry zones providing fodder, fuel for timber, and shade, as well as affecting soil improvement and sand dune stabilization. Known to be used for Treatment of various ailments like leprosy, dysentery, asthma, leucoderma, dyspepsia and earache etc.
October 25, Wednesday : Chathayam : Neolamarckia cadamba (കദംബം ) - Rubiaceae
Tall fast-growing trees. Timber and manufacturing paper. Additionally, the sweet-scented flowers are used to make perfume. The paste prepared from the bark of stem and leaf of Kadamba is useful to treat pain, redness and itching due to insect bite.
October 26, Thursday : Poororutathi : Mangifera indica (മാവ് ) - Anacardiaceae
A large evergreen tree of multiple utility. For wood, fruit, medicine and more. The fruits are sweet and delicious with high market demand. An infusion of leaves and bark is used as an astringent, and it is applied as a mouth wash for toothache, sore gums, sore throat, and similar affections. The trees are of significance in spiritual functions.
October 27, Friday : Uthratathi : Borassus flabellifer (പന ) - Arecaceae
A multipurpose palm for timber, fibre, leaves, fruits etc. The Palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) leaves are used for thatching, mats, baskets, fans, hats, umbrellas, and as writing material. Tala (Toddy palm) – Borassus flabellifer is an Ayurvedic plant used for the treatment of general debility. The fermented sap from the tree is popular as toddy or boiled down to make sugar blocks, also known as palm ‘jaggary. The germinating ones are used for edible purpose.
October 28, Saturday : Revathy : Madhuca longifolia (ഇലിപ്പ) - Sapotaceae
It is an evergreen multipurpose tree with with dense crown and leaves crowded at branch tips and milky latex, that is very important to the local economy, supplying a range of foods, medicines and other commodities. Flowers and fruits are edible. An oil extracted from the seed is used both as a substitute and an adulterant of ghee. Seeds are used in rheumatism and skin infections.
October 29, Sunday : Aswathy : Strychnos nux-vomica (കാഞ്ഞിരം ) – Loganiaceae
It is a medium-sized tree with a dense, rounded crown and opposite shining green leaves which have prominent three to five nerves from base. Fruits with hard rind orange yellow in colour having discoid large grey seeds. It has long been used medicinally, even though it is extremely poisonous in all but the smallest doses. It is a rich source of the alkaloid ‘strychnine’. The seeds are used for the treatment of fever, loss of digestive power, neurological problems, skin problems, cholera etc.