''Dalbergia sissoo'', known commonly as North Indian rosewood or shisham, is a fast-growing, hardy,

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

tree native to the Indian subcontinent and southern Iran. ''D. sissoo'' is a large, crooked tree with long, leathery leaves and whitish or pink flowers.

Description

''Dalbergia sissoo'' is a medium to large deciduous tree with a light crown, which reproduces by seeds and suckers. It can grow up to in height and in diameter, but is usually smaller. Trunks are often crooked when grown in the open. Leaves are leathery, alternate, pinnately compound, and about long. Flowers are whitish to pink, fragrant, nearly sessile, up to long, and in dense clusters in length. Pods are oblong, flat, thin, strap-like, long, wide, and light brown. They contain one to five flat, bean-shaped seeds, long. They have a long taproot and numerous surface roots that produce suckers. Young shoots are downy and drooping; established stems have light brown to dark gray bark, up to thick, shed in narrow strips; large upper branches support a spreading crown.

Distribution and habitat

''Dalbergia sissoo'' is native to the foothills of the Himalayas ranging from Afghanistan in the west to

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, India, in the east. It also occurs naturally in Iran. It is primarily found growing along river banks above elevation, but can range naturally up to . The temperature in its native range is typically , but varies from just below freezing to nearly . It can withstand average annual rainfall up to and droughts of three to four months. Soils range from pure sand and gravel to rich

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

of river banks; ''shisham'' can grow in slightly saline soils. Seedlings are intolerant of shade.

Ecology

''Dalbergia sissoo'' is the larval food plant of the black rajah butterfly (''Charaxes solon'').

Uses

Timber

It is the best known economic timber species of the

genus sold internationally, but it is also used as fuel wood and for shade and shelter. After

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panic ...

, it is the most important cultivated timber tree of Bihar, which is the largest producer of ''shisham'' timber in India. North Indian rosewood is usually dried before being used in furniture manufacturing, a process commonly known as seasoning. Locally, it is left in open areas to dry under the sun for about six months. Commercially, it is dried in closed chambers with hot-air circulation for about 7 to 15 days, depending on weather conditions. The ideal moisture level is around 5 to 6% for thinner pieces and up to 11% for thicker ones, depending on use. Any level lower than this can cause sudden cracking of the final products. North Indian rosewood is among the finest cabinet and veneer timbers. It is the wood from which '

mridanga The ''khol'' is a terracotta two-sided drum used in northern and eastern India for accompaniment with devotional music ('' bhakti''). It is also known as a ''mridanga'' (<

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

i percussion instrument, is often made. In addition to musical instruments, it is used for

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

, agricultural tools, flooring, as a bentwood, and for turning. The

heartwood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

is golden to dark brown; the sapwood is white to pale brownish white. The heartwood is durable (its

specific gravity Relative density, also called specific gravity, is a dimensionless quantity defined as the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for solids and liquids is nea ...

is 0.7 – 0.8) and is very resistant to fungi, but the sapwood is readily attacked by dry-wood termites and borers. ''D. sissoo'' is known to contain the

neoflavonoid Neoflavonoids are a class of polyphenolic compounds. While flavonoids (in the narrow sense) have the 2-phenylchromen-4-one backbone, neoflavonoids have the 4-phenylchromen backbone with no hydroxyl group substitution at position 2. Types Neoflavo ...

dalbergichromene Dalbergichromene is a neoflavene, a type of neoflavonoid (a polyphenolic compound). Dalbergichromene can be extracted from the stem-bark and heartwood of '' Dalbergia sissoo''. It has also been synthesized from vanillin. References Neofl ...

in its stem bark and heartwood.

Fuel wood

The calorific value of both the sapwood and heartwood is excellent, being reported to be 4,908 kcal/kg and 5,181 kcal/kg, respectively. As a fuel wood, it is grown on a 10- to 15-year rotation. The tree has excellent

coppicing Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

ability, although a loss of vigor after two or three rotations has been reported. The wood makes excellent

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

for heating and cooking.

Traditional medicine

The tree's seed oil and powdered wood are used in the treatment of skin ailments. ''Dalbergia sissoo'' may also have efficacy in the treatment of stomach and blood conditions.

Teeth brushing

Traditionally, slender tree twigs (called ''datun'') are first chewed as a

toothbrush A toothbrush is a special type of brush used to clean the Human tooth, teeth, gingiva, gums, and tongue. It consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles, atop of which toothpaste can be applied, mounted on a handle (grip), handle which facil ...

and then split as a tongue cleaner. This practise has been in use in Pakistan, Africa, and the Middle East for centuries. Many of India's 80% rural population still start their day with the teeth cleaning twig either with '' Salvadora persica ''or ''

Azadirachta indica ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, margosa, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of the two species in the genus ''Azadirachta''. It is native to the Indian subcontinent and to parts of Sout ...

''. In other parts of the world, ''shisham'' twigs are still collected and sold in markets for this use in rural areas.

Pesticide

An ethanolic extract of the fruits of ''D. sissoo'' exhibited molluscicidal effects against eggs of the freshwater snail '' Biomphalaria pfeifferi''.

Construction

The juice of this plant is a potent ingredient for a mixture of wall plaster, according to the ''Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra'', which is a Sanskrit treatise dealing with'' Śilpaśāstra'' (Hindu science of art and construction).

Cultivation

Propagation takes place most commonly by root suckers, but also by seeds. The seeds remain viable for only a few months. Seeds should be soaked in water for 48 hours before sowing; 60% – 80% germination can be expected in 1–3 weeks. Seedlings require partial sun or full sun. In India, ''shisham'' wood trading and its uses are under government restrictions.

Local names

Common names for ''D. sissoo'' are ''sisu'', ''tahli'' or ''tali'', and ''irugudujava''. Indian common names are , and . Pakistani common names are ''sheesham/shisham'' and ''tahli'' in Punjabi. In Pushto its name is ''shewa'', and in Persian, it is called ''jag''. In

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, it is called ''sheesham''. In Bengali, it is called ''sheeshoo''. Local name for Indian rosewood in eastern

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

and western Bihar is ''seeso''. The wood of ''D. sissoo'' is known as ''sheesham'' or ''shisham'', and is an important commercial timber. ''D. sisso'' is the state tree of the Indian state of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

References

{{Authority control sissoo Trees of the Indian subcontinent Trees of Western Asia Environment of Punjab, India Flora of Assam (region)