''Terminalia anogeissiana'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of small to medium-sized trees native to the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

only. Its common names are axlewood (English), ''bakli, baajhi, dhau, dhawa, dhawra, dhawda'', or ''dhaora'' (

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 ...

It is one of the most useful trees in India. Its leaves contain large amounts of

gallotannin A gallotannin is any of a class of molecules belonging to the hydrolysable tannins. Gallotannins are polymers formed when gallic acid, a polyphenol monomer, esterifies and binds with the hydroxyl group of a polyol carbohydrate such as glucose. Met ...

s, and are used in India for tanning and firewood. The tree is the source of Indian gum, also known as ghatti gum, which is used for

calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

printing among other uses. The leaves are also fed on by the ''Antheraea paphia'' moth which produces the tassar silk (

Tussah Tussar silk (alternatively spelled as tussah, tushar, tassar, tussore, tasar, tussur, or tusser, and also known as (Sanskrit) ''kosa'' silk) is produced from larvae of several species of silkworms belonging to the moth genus '' Antheraea'', incl ...

), a form of

wild silk Wild silks have been known and used in many countries from early times, although the scale of production is far smaller than that from cultivated silkworms. Silk cocoons and nests often resemble paper or cloth, and their use has arisen independe ...

of commercial importance. Anogeissus latifolia bark

Footnotes

References

* ''"Anogeissus latifolia"'', AgroForestry Tree Database. Accessed April 20, 2008

{{Taxonbar, from=Q90611496, from2=Q45166 Terminalia (plant), anogeissiana Flora of the Indian subcontinent Plants described in 1869