Scientific Name: Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb.

Synonyms: Buceras bellirica (Gaertn.) Lyons, Terminalia attenuata Edgew.

Unique ID: 156

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

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