| Phalsa |
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| File size | 1964249 |
| Original date | 3/31/07 11:21 AM |
| Resolution | 2816 x 2112 |
| Flash | Flash did not fire, auto |
| Focal length | 6.4mm |
| Exposure time | 1/500s |
| Aperture | 6.3 |
| Focus Distance | |
| Metering Mode | Multi-segment |
| Camera make | Panasonic |
| Camera model | DMC-FZ7 |
| Sensor type | OneChipColorArea |
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 ative |
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Photo: Dinesh Valke |
Botanical name: Grewia asiatica Family: Tiliaceae (phalsa family)
Phalsa is a shrub or small tree which can grow upto 12 feet high. Its bark is greyish-white or greyish-brown. Leaves with serrated margins vary from broadly heart-shaped to obliquely ovate. The flowers are yellow about 2 centimeters in length, and borne in densely crowded (rarely solitary) axillary cymes. The fruit is edible, rounded, small dark blue to almost black when ripe, sweetish and somewhat acid, with a fairly good flavor and each drupe contains a rather large seed. The fruit is eaten raw with relish and sold in Delhi lanes in summers, with great enthusiasm by singing hawkers.
Medicinal uses:
The fruit is supposed to possess astringent,
cooling and stomachic properties. A spirit is distilled and a pleasant sherbet
is made from it. The leaves are used as an application to pustular eruptions.
The Santals prescribe the root-bark for rheumatism. In Sind an
infusion of the bark is used as a demulcent.
| Photographed in Maharashtra. |