unstleria keralensis Mohanan & Nair – A monotypic genus of Fabaceae in India bloomed at MSSBG
This genus was recorded with a newly described species from India from a sacred grove by Mohan & Nair in 1981(Mohanan, CN & NC Nair, “Kunstleria Prain—A new genus record for India and a new species in the genus”, Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Section B. 90 (3): 207–209 (1981))
Kunstleria keralensis is distributed throughout the wet evergreen forest belts of Kerala. Due to the close resemblance with the ‘leaf of curry leaves’, it is locally known as ‘Kariveppilavalli’.
Kunstleria keralensis has woody twining stem and compound leaves, flowers of dark purple in colour and a terminal panicle inflorescence. The species had planted in the RET conservatory of MSSBG in 2006. It has flowered for the first instance in the year in 2016 on a decade of its existence in our garden.