Terminalia chebula

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales
Family: Combretaceae
Genus: Terminalia
Species: Terminalia chebula
Scientific Name: Terminalia chebula Retz.

Common names
English: Black myrobalan, Chebulic Myrobalam Hindi: Harra हरीतक Haritak Marathi: हिरडा Hirda
Sanskrit हरीतकी Haritaki

Description
Deciduous trees, to 25 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, surface dark brown to black, fissures shallow, vertical, exfoliating in thick scales; blaze yellowish-brown; young shoots densely pubescent; branchlets brownish or greyish, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite to alternate, exstipulate; petiole 12-25 mm long, stout, grooved above, pubescent, 2 sessile glands at the top; lamina 9.5-28 x 4-13 cm, ovate, elliptic, obovate or elliptic-obovate, base round, obtuse, oblique or subtruncate, apex acute, acuminate, obtuse or apiculate, margin entire, glabrous above tawny villous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-12 pairs, pinnate, ascending, prominent, arched towards the margin, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, greenish-white, 5-6 mm across, in terminal and axillary spikes with offensive smell; bracts 2-3 mm long; calyx tube 1.5-2.5 × 0.8-1 mm, villous, constricted above the ovary, lobes 5, creamy, triangular, 1.5 mm; petals 0; stamens 10 in 2 rows; filaments 4-6 mm; disc 5-lobed, villous; ovary 2 mm long, inferior, densely villous, 1-celled; style 5 mm, subulate; stigma terminal. Fruit a drupe 3-4 x 2-2.5 cm, obovoid, woody, obscurely 5 angled, glabrous, greenish-yellow; seed one.