Bedda Nut Tree (താന്നി)
Scientific Name: | Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb. | |
Synonyms: | Buceras bellirica (Gaertn.) Lyons , Terminalia attenuata Edgew. | |
Systematic Position | ||
Class: | Dicotylodonae | |
Sub Class: | Polypetalae | |
Series: | Calyciflorae | |
Order: | Myrtales | |
Family: | Combretaceae | |
Common Names | ||
English: | Belleric myrobalan, Bedda nut tree | |
Malayalam: | താന്നി | |
Tamil: | Thaani,Tanri | |
Hindi: | Bahuvirya |
Description: Deciduous trees, to 35 m high, bole often buttressed; bark 10-20 mm thick, surface blackish-grey, smooth, vertically shallowly fissured, exfoliations small, semi-fibrous; blaze yellow; branches sympodial; branchlets terete, thinly fulvous-hairy, leaf scars prominent. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 15-80 mm, stout, slightly grooved above, glabrous; lamina 9-35 x 5-16 cm, obovate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic; base obliquely cuneate, attenuate or acute; apex obtusely acuminate, margin entire, both surface pubescent when young, glabrous at maturity, coriaceous, eglandular; lateral nerves 7-10 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, 5-6 mm across, in axillary spikes; peduncle puberulous; bracteoles 0.5-2 mm long, linear-lanceolate, caducous; calyx tube 2-2.5 ×1.3-2 mm, rusty pubescent, constricted above the ovary; lobes 5, cream, triangular, tomentose; disc 5-lobed, villous; petals absent; ovary 1.5 mm, inferior, tomentose, 1-celled; ovules 2 or 3, pendulous; style 4 mm, subulate; stigma small. Fruit a drupe 2-2.5 x 1.8 cm, obovoid, obscurely 5-ridged, yellowish-brown, honed, not winged, softly tomentose; seed one, ellipsoid.
Habitat: Emergent in the openings of evergreen to semi-evergreen forests up to 1400 m.
Distribution: Indo-Malesia
Uses: folk medicine, Nectar source, Culturally significant, Green manure, Timber, Tanning and dyeing, Good fuelwood