Category: Uses and benefits

Diospyros ebenum Koenig (EBENACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Balemara, Karimara.
Malayalam: Karu, Misha tumpi.
Tamil: Acha, Thumbe.
Telugu: Nalluti, Tumiki.

Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 15 meters. Their bark is finely longitudinally cracked and typically dark grey. The leaves are arranged alternately, elliptic to oblong, measuring up to 16 by 5.5 cm, with bases that are either acute or rounded and apices that are obtuse or acuminate. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow. Male flowers in short axillary cymes. Calyx 4-lobed, lobes suborbicular. Corolla tubular, 4-lobed, with oblong rounded lobes, white. Stamens about 35, very unequal; anthers apiculate, pistillode O. Female flowers solitary. Calyx much larger than in male, deeply devided. Staminodes 8. Ovary 8-celled. Fruit a berry, subglobose, ca 2×1.5cm, seated on a ring at base of spreading calyx lobes. Seeds 8, smooth, dull black.

Flowering & Fruiting: February – August

Distribution: India: Frequent in semi-evergreen to evergreen forests across Ghats.Sri Lanka.

Uses: The fruits are edible. Wood very hard, dark coloured. One of the most valuable woods in fancy wood market. Used for ornamental carving and turnery. It is used for veneers, inlaying, musical instruments, sports goods, mathematical instruments, piano keys and caskets. The plant is a fish poison. The plant is astringent, attenuant and lithotriptic.

Diospyros ferrea (Willd.) var. neilgherrensis (Wight) Bakh. (EBENACEAE)

Description: Trees, up to 10 m tall; young parts hirsute; bark smooth, greyish brown. Leaves alternate, elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5-5 x 1-2 cm, narrowed at base, acuminate usually obtusely at apex, chartaceous. Flowers unisexual, 3-merous. Calyx campanulate, lobes 3, short, triangular. Corolla campanulate, lobes 3, oblong. Male flowers: 1-3 flowers in subsessile cymes. Stamens 6-12; anthers linear; ovary rudiment, hairy. Female flowers: ovary 3-celled; style 3-lobed at apex. The fruit, either spherical or ellipsoidal, measures approximately 1 cm in length, typically brownish, with a cup-shaped calyx during fruiting. Within, there is a single smooth seed.

Flowering & Fruiting: February – August.

Distribution: India: South Deccan Peninsula. Common in Western Ghats, Nilgiris, Pulneys and hills of Tinnevelly, up to 2000 m in shola forests, hills of N. Coimbatore.Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Sri Lanka, Malaya Peninsula.

Diospyros candolleana Wight (EBENACEAE)

COMMON NAME
Sanskrit: Nila viruksha.
Kannada: Kari mara.
Tamil: Kari maram.
Malayalam: Kari.
Telugu: Jagala ganti.

Description: Trees, up to 15 m tall; branchlets pubescent. Leaves alternate, oblong, up to 15 x 5.5 cm, narrowed or rounded at base, blunty acuminate at apex. Inflorescence of axillary clusters on short tubercles. Flowers unisexual, 5-merous, tawny silky-tomentose, Calyx lobes oblong, acute in male flowers, slightly longer in female flowers. Corolla urceolate. Stamen 10, in pairs. Staminodes are noticeable. The ovary is divided into four cells. The fruit is a round berry, reaching sizes of up to 2.5 cm in diameter, and typically brown. Inside, there are four seeds with a ruminate albumen.

Flowering & Fruiting: March – December.

Distribution: India: In evergreen and moist deciduous forests of Western Peninsular India.

Uses: Timber hard, used in building constructions. A decoction of root-bark is used in rheumatism and swellings.

Diospyros buxifolia (Blume) Hiern. (EBENACEAE)

Description: The trees can reach heights of up to 20 meters. When young, the twigs are covered in fine hair (hirsute), while the bark is smooth, ranging in color from dark brown to black. Leaves alternate subsessile, elliptic, up to 5.5 x 2.4 cm, acute. Flowers unisexual, 4-merous. Male flowers 1-4 in subsessile cymes. Stamens 16; anthers dehiscing by apical pores. Female flower solitary. Fruit a berry, oblong, up to 1.5 cm long, brownish. Seeds smooth.

Flowering & Fruiting: February – July.

Distribution: India: Western Peninsula. Common in semi-evergreen and evergreen forests, especially in northern parts of Western Ghats. Indomalaya. Timber hard, used in construction work.

Diospyros bourdilloni Brandis (EBENACEAE)

Common names
Malayalam: Kari, Kodal, Therikka.
Tamil: Karun chathi.

Distribution: Large tree, 25-30 m tall with black bark. Leaves alternate, drooping, oblong-lanceolate, up to 15 x 5 cm, cuneate at base, long acuminate at apex, glabrous, coriaceous; main nerves 6-8 pairs. Flowers unisexual; male flowers in short axillary cymes; female in short thick-peduncled cymes on old wood, white. Calyx cup-like, 5-lobed, lobes pointed. The Corolla exhibits five lobes. There are 12 to 18 stamens, and female flowers contain 10 staminodes. The ovary is eight-celled, and the fruit is a globose berry, roughly 7.5 cm in diameter, with a dull reddish-tomentose appearance.

Distribution: India: Western Ghats. In evergreen forests up to 800 m. Endemic.

Dillenia pentagyna Roxb. (DILLENIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Kadukanigala, Muchiru.
Malayalam: Kodapunna, Naithekku.

Description: Deciduous trees, up to 15 m tall. Leaves crowded at the ends of branchlets, alternate, oblong-lanceolate or oblong-obovate, 15-50 x 7-21 cm, obtuse or cuneate at base, obtuse at apex, nearly entire to dentate along margins; lateral nerves 25-50 pairs, parallel, pubescent; petioles 1.5 – 5 cm long, with persistent wing-like stipules. Flowers 2-7, small, fascicled or unbellate on short leafless shoots, yellow, fragrant. Sepals 5, ovate, brown, accrescent. Petals 5, obovate, up to 2 cm long. Stamens in 2 series; outer series with 60-90 stamens; inner series with up to 10 stamens. Carpels 5(-6) arranged on narrow conical receptacle, oblong-lanceolate unilocular. The hanging fruits are somewhat round, measuring 15 by 13 millimeters, not splitting open, with a fleshy texture, and can be yellow, orange, or red. Each contains 1-2 ovoid seeds, approximately 5 by 3.5 millimeters in size, black, and lacking an aril.

Flowering: January – May.
Fruiting: March – June.

Distribution: India: Throughout, including Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Myanmar,China, Vietnam, Thailand, Celebes, Java and Lesser Sunda Islands.

Uses: Root, leaf, flower, fruit and seed are used in leucorrhoea, cough, anuresis, diarrhoea, dysentery, indigestion, and intermittent fever in the Siddha system of medicine.

Dillenia india L. (DILLENIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Betta-kanagala.
Malayalam: Chalita, Syalita.
Tamil: Uva.
Telugu: Pedda kalinga.
English: Elephant apple.

Description: Evergreen trees, up to 25 m tall; bark smooth, peeling off in a small thin hard scales; branchlets tomentose. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 15-40 x 5-12 cm, attenuate at base, acute to acuminate at apex, more or less serrate-dentate along margins, glabrous above, strigose especially on nerves beneath; lateral nerves 30-50 pairs; petiole 4-8 cm long, silky hairy. Flowers solitary, terminal, 15-20 cm across, white. Sepals 5, orbicular, 4-6 x 3-5 cm. Petals 5, oblong-obovate, 7-9 x 5-6 cm, rounded at apex, fleshy white with green veins. Stamens numerous, inner whorl longer than the rest and recurved. Carpels 14-20, each with 40-80 ovules; style flattened. Fruits 7-10 cm across, greenish yellow. Numerous seeds, roughly 6 by 4 millimeters in size, are kidney-shaped, compressed, with a hairy margin, initially reddish and later turning black.

Flowering : May – August.
Fruiting : September – February.

Distribution: India: Tropical and subtropical regions, up to 800 m in N.E. region, Gangetic plains, central India and Western Ghats. Uttara Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand,Cambodia, Vietnam to Malaysia.

Uses: Cultivated as an ornamental.

Diploclisia glaucescens (Blume) Diels (MENISPERMACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Bootha Kannu.
Tulu: Bootha Kannu.
Tamil: Kottaiyachachi, Morasankodi.

Description: Woody climbers. Leaves alternate, paltate or not, broadly ovate to suborbicular, up to 11 x 9 cm, sub cordate to truncate at base, obtuse at apex, slightly crenate along margins, glaucous beneath; petioles up to 12 cm long. Flowers in large, up to 50 cm long, drooping panicles from old wood, yellow, faintly fragrant. Sepals 6 in two whorls of 3 each. Petals 6. Stamens in male flowers 6, opposite the petals; anthers dehiscing by transverse slits. The female flowers possess 6 staminodes. There are 3 carpels situated on a short gynophore. The obovoid drupelets, roughly 2.5 by 1.5 centimeters, display transverse ribs and vary in color from yellow to orange.

Flowering & Fruiting: March – August.

Distribution: India: In moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests, up to 1500 m. Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andaman Islands.Sri Lanka, Myanmar, S. China, Thailand, Indo-China and Malaysia.

Uses: Powdered leaf with milk given in biliousness, gonorrhoea and syphilis.

Dalbergia latifolia Roxb. (PAPILIONACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Beete mara.
Malayalam: Cholavitti.
Tamil: Eravadi.
English: Indian rose wood.

Description: Deciduous trees,10-20 m tall with grey bark. Leaves imparipinnate, 20-25 cm; rachis glabrous; leaflets 5-7, elliptic-orbicular curved to the petiole at base, obtuse or emarginated at apex, glabrous on both sides; petiolules 0.5 – 0.8 cm long. Flowers in axillary or extra axillary corymbose panicles. Calyx 5-lobed, teeth linear oblong, obtuse, glabrous. Petals 5 with long claws, yellowish white. Stamens 9, monadelphous. Ovary stalked, glabrous. The fruit is an undivided elongated pod, measuring approximately 8 by 1.5 centimeters, slightly tapered at both ends, flat, marked with a net-like pattern, and smooth. Typically containing 1 to 3 (occasionally 4) kidney-shaped, black seeds.

Flowering & Fruiting: August – October.

Distribution: India: Western peninsula. Frequent in moist deciduous to semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats. Indomalesia.

Uses: Wood extremely hard, heavy, the heartwood dark purple with black streaks. It is the rosewood of southern India, chiefly used for furniture and commands a very high price in the market. Leaves used as fodder. Plant bitter tonic, anthelmintic, stomachic, used in diarrhoea, dyspepsia and obsesity.