Terminalia bellirica

 

Family: COMBRETACEAE

Malayalam Name(s): Thanni, Thannikka, Tusham

English name(s): Bedda nut tree, Belliric myrobalan

Habit: Tree

Flowering & Fruiting: December-January

Medicinal: Yes

Habitat: Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains

Description: Deciduous trees, to 35 m high, bole often buttressed; bark 10-20 mm thick, surface blackish-grey, smooth, vertically shallowly fissured, exfoliations small, semi-fibrous; branches sympodial; branchlets terete, thinly fulvous-hairy, leaf scars prominent. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets, 9-35 x 5-16 cm, obovate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, apex obtusely acuminate, base obliquely cuneate, attenuate or acute, margin entire, both surface pubescent when young, glabrous at maturity, coriaceous, eglandular; petiole 15-80 mm, stout, slightly grooved above, glabrous; lateral nerves 7-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, 5-6 mm across, in axillary spikes; peduncle puberulous; bracteoles 0.5-2 mm long, linear-lanceolate, caduceus. Calyx tube 2-2.5 ×1.3-2 mm, rusty pubescent, constricted above the ovary; lobes 5, cream, triangular, tomentose; disc 5-lobed, villous. Petals absent. Ovary 1.5 mm, inferior, tomentose, 1-celled; ovules 2 or 3, pendulous; style 4 mm, subulate; stigma small. Fruit a drupe 2-2.5 x 1.8 cm, obovoid, obscurely 5-ridged, yellowish-brown, honed, not winged, softly tomentose; seed one, ellipsoid.

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കുവാൻ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക