Terminalia catappa L. | |
Combertaceae | |
Inguti | |
| Botanical Name | Terminalia catappa L. |
| Synonyms | Badamia commersoni .Gaertn, Terminalia procera Roxb. |
| Family | Combertaceae |
| Common Name | English: Indian Almond tree / Tamil : Inguti |
| Distribution | Global : Australia, Myanmar, India Indian : Throughout India |
| Description | Large deciduous tree up to 25 m height, bark dark brown, branchlets with persistent leaf-scars. Leaves densely clustered at the ends of branchlets, alternate, obovate, thin-coriaceous, 12-15-nerved, glabrous above, tomentose below, base subcordate-cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse-rotund, retuse, sessile. Inflorescence axillary spikes up to 10 cm, bracteoles triangular. Flowers small, cluster in linear along the peduncle, complete, actinomorphic, bisexual. Calyx-tube - 2 mm, tomentose; lobes 5, triangular - 1 mm, puberulous. Stamens 10, filaments 2 - 3 mm. Ovary 5 mm, monocarpellary, style short4 mm. Drupe ellipsoid, compressed, 2-ridged when dry, glabrous. |
| Flowering Fruiting period | March –June / July- September |
| Uses | Source of gum, oil from the seeds is used to make soap. Roots and bark are the important sources of tannin. Black dye is extracted from the bark used as black ink. |
| Medicinal Uses | Used to cure the dysentery. Leaves used for the fungal infection and skin disease |
| Tamil Name | Inguti |