Digital Garden

Terminalia bellirica

Baheda

Scientific Name: Terminalia belliriça

Common Name: Baheda

Scientific name- Terminalia belliriça

Common name- Bastard Myrobalan, Baheda

Family- Combretaceae

Habit type- Tree  

Geographical Distribution and general features- Terminalia bellirica is a large deciduous tree to 50 m tall and a diameter of 3 m with a rounded crown. The frequently buttressed bole at the base is branchless up to 20 m. The bark is bluish or ashy-grey covered with numerous fine longitudinal cracks, the inner bark yellowish. Terminalia bellirica is native of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.

Leaves : Leaves are large, glabrous, alternate, broadly elliptic to obovate-elliptical, base rounded to cuneate, rufous-sericeous but soon glabrescent, with 6-9 pairs of secondary veins. Secondary and tertiary venation prominent on both surfaces, clustered towards the ends of branchlets. Young leaves copper-red, soon becoming parrot green, then dark green.

Flowers : Flowers are solitary, small, 3-15 cm long, greenish white, simple, axillary spikes; calyx tube densely sericeous or tomentulose; flowers appear along with new leaves and have a strong honey-like smell. 

Fruits: Fruit is sub-globular to broadly ellipsoid. Animals eat fruits, thus dispersing the seeds

Products takes in use: 

Fodder:  The leaves are highly valued and extensively used as fodder. The farmers lopp side branches, often sparing the main limbs to ensure good growth and future supplies of fodder. The chemical composition improves with the stage of maturity in leaves, which are on the whole considered to be nutritious, palatable and digestible. Leaves contain 9- 14% crude proteins and can be used to rear tussar silkworms (Antherea mylitta). 

Dyestuff or tannins: The fruit produces tannins and dyes used for leather tanning, dyeing of clothes, matting and inks. 

Fuel:  The tree yields a good-quality firewood and charcoal with calorific value of sapwood being 5000 kcal/kg.

Timber:  The wood is whitish, rather soft, with a density of 675-900 kg/m3 at 12% moisture content; sapwood and heartwood are not distinct with straight grains. The wood is steeped in water to make it more durable then used for making boxes, furniture and construction.

Medicine: The fruit rind (pericarp) is astringent, laxative, anthelmintic, pungent, germicidal and antipyretic. It is applied in a diverse range of conditions including cough, tuberculosis, eye diseases, anti-HIV-1, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, dysentery, inflammation of the small intestine, biliousness, flatulence, liver disease, leprosy, cleanse the blood and promote hair growth in the Ayurvedic drug. Fruit extracts have anti-bacterial activity against Micrococcus pyogenes and Escherichia coli.

Cosmetic: The kernel produces a non-edible oil used in toilet soap and is good for hair.

Services 

Ornamental: It is grown as an avenue tree. 

Intercropping: It has been grown in taungya plantations along with agricultural crops, which may be grown for 2-3 years between the lines of trees generally 3-4 m apart.