Mothirakanni / Climbing Flax
Hugonia mystax
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra & more
- Flowering
- May-October
How to identify Mothirakanni
Identify Mothirakanni by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a climbing shrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Hooked spines used for climbing (climbing flax).
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: May-October.
- In India, compare location records such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry.
- Confirm it sits within the Linaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Mothirakanni.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Hugonia mystax
- Genus
- Hugonia
- Family
- Linaceae
- Habit
- Climbing shrub
- Habitat
- Dry and moist deciduous forests, also scrub jungles of the plains
- Native to
- South India, Sri Lanka
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Puducherry
- Flowering & fruiting
- May-October
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Fruit
- Drupe
Characters marked “recorded” are for Mothirakanni itself; the rest are typical of the Linaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Tamil
- Mothirakanni, Agori, Agure
- Kannada
- balle, Kaaka Beera, Modira Kanni Gida
- Malayalam
- Modirakkanni, Kaarthottii, കാർക്കോട്ടി
- Marathi
- कंसमारी Kansmari
About Mothirakanni
A member of the Linaceae family, Climbing Flax (Hugonia mystax) is a climbing shrub. In India it has been recorded in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and 1 other states. It grows in dry and moist deciduous forests, also scrub jungles of the plains. Flowering and fruiting run from May to October.
Linaceae
Flax Family
Mothirakanni belongs to the Linaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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