Tamarindus indica

 

Family: FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE 

Malayalam Name(s): Amlam, Balapuli, Kolpuli, Puli, Valampuli

English name(s): Tamarind tree, Indian date, Sampalok

Habit: Tree

Flowering & Fruiting: September-April

Medicinal: Yes

Habitat: Cultivated

Description: Trees, to 20 m high, bark brown to brownish-black, rough with vertical fissures; branchlets warty, tomentose. Leaves paripinnate, alternate, leaflets 20-34, opposite, sessile, 1.5-4 x 0.4-1.3 cm, oblong, apex obtuse, base unequal, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; stipules lateral, minute, cauducous; rachis 8-13 cm long, slender, glabrous, pulvinate; lateral nerves 10-15 pairs, pinnate, slender, obscure, looped at the margin forming intramarginal nerve; intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers bisexual, 1 cm across, yellow with reddish-pink dots, in lax terminal racemes; bracts and bracteoles ovate-oblong, coloured, cauducous; pedicels upto 5 mm. Calyx tube narrowly turbinate, lined by disc; lobes 4, subequal, oblong, imbricate. Petals 3, outer one, 1 x 0.3 cm, rolled up, pink dotted, lateral 2, 1-1.5 x 0.7-1 cm, clawed, subequal, oblong-lanceolate, lower pair scaly. Stamens 9 monadelphous, only 3 fertile, others reduced to bristle, base pubescent; anthers versatile; ovary half inferior, stipitate, adnate to the disc, ovules many; style attenuate, tomentose; stigma globose. Fruit a pod 10-15 x 1-2 cm, oblong, fruit wall crustaceous, mesocarp pulpy, endocarp septate, leathery, indehiscent; seeds 3-8 or more, obovoid-orbicular, compressed, brown.

 

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