Flacourtia Jangomas, Coffee Plum , Puchnala Plant

Botanical Name - Flacourtia Jangomas

Common Name - Coffee Plum , Puchnala

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Angiosperms

Division: Eudicots

Division: Rosids

Order: Malpighiales

Family: Salicaceae

Tribe: Flacourtieae

Genus: Flacourtia

Species: F. jangomas

Flacourtia jangomas, Indian coffee plum, is a lowland and mountain rain forest tree in the Salicaceae or Willow Family. It is widely cultivated in Southeast and East Asia, and has escaped cultivation in a number of places. Its wild origin is unknown but is speculated to be tropical Asia, most perhaps India. This tree is very common in the Southern India and carries immense culinary and medical significance, especially in Kerala where it is commonly known as lubica or lovlolika. Fruits are eaten both raw and cooked as a jam, and the bark is sometimes used medicinally. It is sometimes harvested for its lumber. The plant is considered one of the primary host plants of the Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni)



Flacourtia jangomas is a small, deciduous shrub or tree that grows to a height of 6-10m. Trunk and branches are commonly thornless in old trees, but densely beset with simple or branched, blunt woody thorns when younger. Bark is light-brown to copper-red with a flaky texture and the leaves are light green and narrow ovate in shape. It produces small white to whitish green fragrant flowers. The relatively juicy fruits are rounded pink to dark red and about an inch wide.