![]() Being overwhelmed by the extraordinary beauty of the tree, people often plant it by roadsides well proportionately. The tree sheds its foliage at the end of the growing season. In the dry places, it loses its leaves between the months of November and April and in restraint situations the timing extends to the months of February and March. Poor soil provides it the best growth and in the most suitable conditions, the tree can reach the height of 36 m. or more. As the insects can attack it very easily, the timber of the tree is not very much popular in some places. In the other places, it is used quite frequently for planking and packing cases. However, the inhabitants of the Southern part of India never touch the wood, as they superstitiously believe that the demons inhabited it. ![]() The fruit is the most significant part of the tree. It is like a velvet ball that is grey coloured and around 2.5 cm in length. People use this fruit commercially as medicine. The immatured fruits are also used as an inferior dyeing and tanning material and also for making ink. An oil obtained from the kernels of the tree is also used on the hair. Though some people think that it can produce intoxication to an extent, people do eat it as well. Not only to the people, some of the animals like Monkeys, Deers, Squirrels, Pigs and Goats also eat this fruit. In fact, they really favour this fruit. The first part of the scientific name of the tree 'Terminalia' derived from a Latin word that means "terminal". The tree is given such a name because the leaves cluster at the ends of the branches in many of the species, including this one. The second part 'Bellirica' is a Latinised form of the fruit's Arabic name. The popular name of the tree 'Myrabolan' is also for the fruits of 'Phyllanthus Emblica' and 'Terminalia Chebula'. The combination of these three fruits make a famous tonic named as 'Trefala Churan'. |