Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng.

സമുദ്രകായ്യ്

Family : LECYTHIDACEAE

Synonym :

Eugenia racemosa L.

Common Names : Samudrachampa, Samudrakai, Fish-killer tree, Fish-poison wood, Freshwater mangrove, Putat Kampung

Flowering Period : August-March

Distribution : Indo-Malesia to Polynesia

Habitat : Along banks of backwaters and mangrove forests

Uses : The young or cooked leaves (to remove their bitterness) are edible. The pounded seeds are used to make edible flour. The seeds, bark, leaves, fruits, and roots are used medicinally for various ailments and diseases. The wood is utilized as firewood, and for construction. The bark provides a source of fibre. The powdered bark and all other parts of the plant were exploited as a fish poison, while their extracts may be used as an insecticide. The bark and roots are used as tanning agents as they contain high levels of tannin. It is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree along roadsides.

Key Characters :
Small to medium trees. Leaves alternate, tufted at the ends of stout twigs, obovate, ovate, tapering to base, glabrous and shiny. Flowers in long, pendulous, mostly terminal racemes. Petals 4, oblong or oblong-oval, spreading, pink to red in colour. Stamens numerous in 5 or 6 whorls of which the innermost one is staminodal. Fruit ovoid.