Acacia chundra (Roxb. ex Rottl.) Willd. 

കരിങ്ങാലി

Family : FABACEAE/LEGUMINOSAE (Subfam.: Mimosoideae)

Synonym :

Acacia sundra (Roxb.) DC.

Common Names : Karingali, Kannali, Cutch tree, Red kutch

Flowering Period : July-August

Distribution : Peninsular India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar

Habitat : Dry deciduous forests

Uses : The bark is medicinal and used to cure diarrhoea. A combination of the bark and root boiled in water helps to bring down high blood pressure. Strong timber can be used for construction and agricultural implements. Wood is very hard; used for agricultural implements, rice pounders and as fuel wood.

Key Characters :

Trees; to 8 m high; bark rusty brown; rough, peeling off in thin flakes; branchlets smooth, glabrous, pale purplish-brown. Leaves bipinnate, alternate, stipulate; stipular spines short, hooked to 8 mm; rachis 8-10 cm long, slender, grooved above, pulvinate, glabrous; pinnae 10-15 pairs opposite, even pinnate, 2-4 cm long, slender, with a gland at the base of lowest pair of pinnae and between 1-2 extreme pairs on upper side; leaflets 30-60, opposite, sessile, stipels absent; lamina 4-10 x 1-2 mm, linear-oblong, base unequally truncate, apex obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous, midrib subcentral, lateral nerves obscure. Flowers yellowish-white, 2 mm across, in axillary 1-3 clustered spikes shorter than leaves; calyx tube campanulate, 1 mm long, 5-lobed, glabrous; corolla three times as long as calyx, lobes linear-lanceolate, glabrous; stamens many, connate at base; ovary stipitate, falcate, upto 1.5 mm, glabrous; style filiform; stigma small, terminal. Fruit a pod, 5-10 x 1.5-2 cm, stipitate, flat, thin, glabrous, strongly nerved, obtuse at base, apically horned; suture wavy, depressed between seeds; seeds ca.6, ovoid, greenish-brown.