Lannea coromandelica (Houtt.) Merr. (ANACARDIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Ajasringi, Godda, Gajal, Gugul, Kuratige, Udimara.
Tulu: Poorli.
Malayalam: Kalasan.
Sanskrit: Jhangri.
Tamil: Wodier.
Telugu: Gumpin.
Description: Deciduous trees, 10-15 m tall; bark dark brownish grey with longitudinal furrows. Leaves clustered at the ends of branchlets, alternate, imparipinnate, 20-40 cm long; petioles 7-13 cm long; leaflets 3-7 pairs, elliptic-oblong or ovate-elliptic, 9-15×5-7 cm, obliquely rounded at base, acuminate at apex, stillate pubescent beneath; petiolules up to 2 mm long; main nerves 6-8 pairs. Flowers appearing when the tree is bare of leaves, yellowish green, crowded in cymose fascicles, the male racemes compound, the female simple. Calyx 4-lobed, lobes ovate-orbicular, ciliate. Petals 4, ovate-oblong, acute. Disc 8-notched. Stamens 8 in male flower, inserted below the disc; anthers ovate or sagitate; in female flowers short and sterile. In female flowers, the ovary is superior and 1-loculed, with four styles and papillose stigmas; in male flowers, the ovary is rudimentary. The fruit is a red, reniform drupe, measuring approximately 1 x 0.7 cm when ripe, and contains a single, compressed seed.
Flowering & Fruiting: April – December.
Distribution: India: Throughout, up to 1000 m in the Himalayas; often planted along avenues. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttara Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachala Pradesh, Tripura, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Pakistan.
Uses: Wood light red, fairly strong, moderately hard and light, used for house building, packing-cases, furniture, wheel spokes, yokes, oil presses, rice pounders, plough shafts, spear shafts, combs, brush backs, wooden jars, mine props, cutting blocks, troughs, well construction, dugouts, boats, carving, turnery, plywood, tea-chests, slack cooperage, bobbins, rollers in jute mills, inferior pencils, slate frames and railway sleepers. The bark extract dyes cotton. It can also be used to textile printing and for dyeing silk and wool. It is a good fodder tree. Bark antiodontalgic, astringent, used in ulcers and sore eyes; leaf used in swellings, sprains and body ache.