Carallia brachiata (Lour.) Merr. (RHIZOPHORACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Andipunaru.
Tulu: Andipunaru.
Description: Trees, up to 20 m tall with creamy rough bark. Leaves opposite, elliptic-obovate, up to 12 x 8 cm, acute at base, obtuse or shortly acuminate at apex; stipules large, caducous. Flowers small, sessile, in small heads on axillary trichotomous cymes, up to 0.35 mm across, white. Calyx tube campanulate, divided to middle, lobes acute. Petals 8, free, obovate, clawed, inserted at the margin of disc. Stamens 16, free; anthers 2-celled. The ovary is semi-inferior, divided into four compartments, each containing two ovules; the stigma has four lobes. The fruit is a round berry, measuring up to 0.6 cm in length, initially green but turning red when ripe.
Flowering & Fruiting: October – January
Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Sri Lanka, China, Malaya and Australia.
Uses: The fruits are fleshy and edible. The leaves are used in Malacca as a beverage like tea. The oil extracted from seeds is used as a substitute for ghee. Wood red, hard, with a pretty silvery grain, used for house building, posts, furniture, cabinet work, rice pounders, agricultural implements, flooring, staircases, ornamental work and for veneered panels in railway carriages. It is also suitable for picture frames and brush backs. Bark used for itch; fruit used in ulcer therapy.
