Terminalia alata Heyne ex Roth (COMBRETACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Banapu, Kirimatti.
Tulu: Banpu.
Malayalam: Tehmbara.
Sanskrit: Dharaphala, Saradru.
Tamil: Kara maruda.
Telugu: Tani.
English: Laurel tree.
Description: These are sizable deciduous trees, reaching heights of up to 30 meters, characterized by grey or black bark with deep, cracked roughness. The young parts of the trees are covered with yellowish-brown pubescence. Leaves sub-opposite or the uppermost alternate, ovate-oblong, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, rarely obovate, up to 20 x 8 cm, truncate – cordate at base, obtuse, emarginated or acute at apex, softly tomentose when young with a pair of large glands, one on either side of the midrib beneath; petioles up to 1 cm long. Flowers in axillary or terminal paniculate spikes, yellowish-white or dull-yellow, fragrant. Calyx companulate, villous without, lobes 5. Corolla 0. Stamens 10, 2-seriate. Disc clothed with long fulvous hairs. Ovary 1-locular. Fruit a drupe, ellipsoid, up to 6 x 3.5 cm, glabrous, brown with 5 broad wings. Seed solitary.
Flowering & Fruiting : April – August.
Distribution: India: Common throughout in deciduous and moist forests, ascending to an altitude of about 1200 m. Sri Lanka.
Uses:
- It is one of the most universally employed of all the important Indian timbers. Widely used for building, beams, joints, rafters, doors and window frames, boarding, construction of carts, toys, furniture, oil-mills, rice pounders, engine brake blocks, electric casing, in mines as side props in shafts and galleries, railway wagons for floor-boards and doors, railway sleepers, agricultural implements, tool handles, plywood (both general and decorative), electric poles etc.
- This timber is well-suited for construction in fire-proof buildings. The upper branches and unsound logs are excellent sources for high-quality firewood and charcoal. The bark is useful as a tan. Leaves are lopped for fodder. In Chota Nagpur the leaves are much used for feeding tasar silkworms. Bark diuretic, styptic, cardiotonic, used in haemorrhage, ulcers, fractures, bronchitis, diarrhoea, fever, boils, pruritus and diseases of head; gum purgative.
