Terminalia paniculata Roth (COMBRETACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Mathi.
Tulu: Maruva.
Malayalam: Marutu, Pe marutu, Vem marutu.
Tamil: Pei kadukai, Marudu.
Telugu: Nimiri, Pulamaddi, Putamanu.
Description: Deciduous trees, 10-12 m tall with dark brown cracked bark; young parts softly pubescent. Leaves subopposite or upper ones alternate, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, up to 20 x 9 cm, rounded or cordate at base, acute or acuminate at apex, with sessile glands at base beneath. Flowers in slender spikes forming compound panicles, bisexual, white. Calyx 5-lobed, hairy within. Petals 0. Stamens 10 in 2 series; filaments exserted. Disc 5-lobed, villous. The ovary is situated inferiorly, is 1-celled, and covered in dense hairs. The fruit is a winged capsule, reaching dimensions of up to 2 x 1 cm. It is unequally 3-winged, with the middle wing larger than the lateral ones, displaying a brownish-red coloration.
Flowering : November – December.
Fruiting : February – March.
Distribution: South W. India. Fairly common in deciduous forests and occasional in semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats and interior Karnataka; in the deciduous forests of Cuddapah and Bellary, up to 600 m.
Uses: Wood pale brown, smooth, very hard, a useful building wood, used in buildings for doors, windows, planks and rafters. Also used for furniture, cabinet making, ship building, dugouts, boats, carts, agricultural implements, mine props, poles and ply wood. The wood is used as fuel. The bark and fruits are used for dyeing. Bark and fruit contain tannin and are used for tanning. Branches are lopped for green manure. Bark diuretic, cardiotonic, used in parotitis; flower anticholerin and used in opium poisoning.
