oikos : for Ecological Services

November - 2010
Dear Nature Lovers, Wishing you a very happy Diwali ! Wild vegetables have always been interesting & unusual, apart from being a nutritious diet of hill dwellers. ‘Ghotwel’ is one such seasonal delicacy having pretty flowers & attractive fruits. Such plants are never grown as crops, so we need to protect their surrounding in totality. Let’s protect & conserve wilderness for better health & future !
Regards, Ketaki & Manasi.
Ghotwel Scientific name: Smilax zeylanica Family: Smilacaceae This prickly, perennial climber is also known as Ghetwel, Indian smilax. It grows in clusters, vegetated areas, on trees in medium to high rainfall zones in hills. It profusely flowers with greenish-yellow balls having light fragrance. The bright green leaves have parallel veins & slender stem is reddish in colour. Round, small berries appear in December and are green in colour. Tender leaves & new shoots are used as vegetables. It is medicinally valued as tonic and also used in urinary complaints & dysentery. It is a larval host to butterflies Common leopard (Phalanta phalantha), Water snow flat (Tagiades litigiosa).

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