Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb.
| Family: | COMBRETACEAE |
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| Sub-Family: | Not available | ||||
| English Name: | Bedda | ||||
| Synonym: | Myrobalanus bellirica Gaertn | ||||
| Common Name: | Thannikka | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | December – January | ||||
| Distribution: | Indo-Malaysia | ||||
| Habitat: | Semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, also in the plains | ||||
| Uses: | In traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Baheda is known as ‘Bibhitaki’ in its fruit form it is used in the popular Indian herbal rasayana treatment triphala. This species is used by some tribes in the Indian subcontinent for its mind-altering qualities - they smoke dried kernels. Too much of this can cause nausea and vomiting. | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | Deciduous trees, to 35 m high; bark surface blackish-grey, smooth. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets, obovate, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, in axillary spikes. Calyx tube lobes 5, cream, triangular. Petals absent. Ovary inferior, 1-celled; ovules 2 or 3, pendulous; stigma small. Fruit a drupe, obovoid, yellowish-brown; seed one, ellipsoid. | ||||