''Terminalia elliptica'' (sin. ''Terminalia tormentosa'') is a species of ''
Terminalia'' native to southern and southeast
Asia
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in
India
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,
Nepal
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,
Bangladesh
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,
Myanmar
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,
Thailand
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,
Laos
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,
Cambodia
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Vietnam
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.
[Sal and Saaj Deforestation in West Nepal]
"Terminalia Tomentosa"
/ref> It is a prominent part of both dry and moist deciduous forests in southern India up to 1000 m.
Common names are asna; saj or saaj; Indian laurel; ''marutham'' (Tamil); ''matti'' (Kannada); ain (Marathi); taukkyan (Burma); sadar, matti or marda (India); ''asana'' (Sri Lanka); and casually ''crocodile bark'' due to the characteristic bark pattern.
It is a tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
growing to 30 m tall, with a trunk diameter of 1 m. The fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
is ovoid, 3 cm long, with five wings not extending beyond the fruit apex.[Flora of China]
''Terminalia''
/ref> The bark is fire-resistant. The wood is coarse, fairly straight grained, dull to somewhat lustrous and without any smell or taste. The hardwood varies from light brown with few markings to dark brown or brownish black and figured with darker streaks. The sapwood is reddish white and sharply differentiated. The heartwood is moderately durable and the sapwood is liable to powder-post beetle attack.
''Terminalia tomentosa'' has a remarkable attribute: some members of the species store water in the dry season. A survey conducted at Bandipur National Park, India showed that a proportion of trees store water and there is a girth dependent increase in the frequency and amount of water storage. The mechanism and ecophysiological significance of this water storage is not known.
Uses
The wood is used for furniture
Furniture refers to objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., Stool (seat), stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (table (furniture), tables), storing items, working, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Furnitur ...
, cabinetwork, joinery, paneling, specialty items, boat-building, railroad cross-ties (treated), decorative veneers and for musical instruments (e.g. for guitar fretboard).
The leaves are used as food by ''Antheraea paphia'' ( silkworms) which produce the tassar silk ( Tussah), a form of commercially important wild silk.leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...
.
Water stored in the stem is often tapped and used as a source of potable water in the summer by forest folk. It is also thought to have curative value for stomach pain.
Outside of its native range, it is cultivated in southern China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
.[
]
In culture
In Theravada Buddhism, a tree of this kind is said to have been used as the tree for achieving enlightenment ('' Bodhi'') by the twentieth Tissa Buddha. (Other text books identify the '' Azadirachta indica'' as the Bodhi tree of Tissa Buddha.)
See also
* List of Indian timber trees
References
External links
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3595750
elliptica
Flora of the Indian subcontinent
Flora of Indo-China