Caesalpinia sappan L.
പതിമുഖം
| Family: | LEGUMINOSAE |
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| Sub-Family: | Caesalpinioideae | ||||
| English Name: | Sappan Wood | ||||
| Synonym: | Biancaea sappan (L.)Tod. | ||||
| Common Name: | Chappangam, Sappannam, Brazil wood | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | August - December | ||||
| Distribution: | Indo-Malaysia | ||||
| Habitat: | Cultivated | ||||
| Uses: | The heartwood is used to treat bruises and coughing of blood. It is generally given to women after labour. A decoction of the wood is used in many Asian countries to treat problems related to blood, because of its red colour. The wood is used for firewood and timber. The wood has fine texture, heavy, hard and lustrous; it takes high finish and is tough and resistant to termite attack. It is used for inlaying work, cabinet making, violin bows and for walking sticks. The red colour decoction from hardwood is used as dye on cotton, silk and wool fabric. Roots give a yellow dye. | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | Trees, to 10 m high, sparsely armed with short straight or recurved prickles. Leaves bipinnate, alternate; lamina oblong, margin entire, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in supra-axillary and terminal racemes; sepals 5, unequal; petals 5, orbicular, subequal, with red spot at the base; stamens 10, declinate, densely woolly at base; ovary half inferior, grey-velvety. Fruit a pod, obliquely oblong, black, glabrous; seeds black, oblong or ellipsoid. | ||||