Terminalia bellirica

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales
Family: Combretaceae
Genus: Terminalia
Species: Terminalia bellirica
Scientific Name: Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb.

Common names
English: Bedda nut tree, Belleric myrobalan
Hindi: Bahera
Marathi: बेहडा Behada, वेहळा Vehala.
Sanskrit अक्षः Akshah, कर्षः Karshah, कासघ्नः Kasaghnah, बहुवीर्य 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.