Spices and Condiments (1+1)

Area and Production

Area and Production:
In India, the area under betelvine is 54,681 hectares with annual production of 17 million crores of leaves. The leaves are exported worth of Rs.18 million. Its leaves are exported to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma and Thailand.

Botany:
Betelvine belongs to genus Piper of the family Piperaceae which is having about 10 genera and over 1000 species of herbs, shrubs and climbers. About 65 species have been described in genus Piper. The species P.

Betle is a perennial dioecious dictyledonous creeper with semi woody stem which climbs by short adventitious roots. Leaves are 5-20 cm long, broadly ovate to slightly coradate and offer unequal at the base, shortly acuminate, acute, entire with often an undulate margin, glabrous, yellowish to dark green, shining on both the surfaces; petiole is stout, 2.0 to 2.5 cm long.

The plant produces orthotropic (vegetative) and plagiotropic (reproductive) branches. Growth rates in terms of stem elongation, number of leaves and branch production are higher in vegetative branches compared to reproductive branches.

Vegetative branches also produce leaves with higher petiole length and intermodal length. The reproductive branches bear male or female flower in a plant. The male spike arising singly from leaf base are long, cylindrical and wavy, measuring 54-90 mm in length with a stalk length of 23-30 mm.

The female spikes also arise singly from the axil and are short, stout, cylindrical and creamy-white to light orange in colour. The spikes measure 40-55 mm in length with a stalk measuring 19-26 mm. Individual flowers are small, sessile, 5-7 lobed with 3-5 stigmas.

During maturation, irregular swelling called nodosites are formed on the fleshy fruits and their number varies from 5 to 7. The mature fruits possesses 2-20 spherical to oval, smooth surfaced seeds.

^Top