FoI
Shidam Tree
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Shidam Tree
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Shidam Tree, False Hemp Tree • Assamese: Bhelu • Bengali: Chundul • Chinese: 四数木 Si shu mu • Garo: Awek, Bol Bok, Dumbong • Hindi: Jangli Dungy • Kannada: ಕಾಡು ಬೆಂಡೆ Kaadu bende, ಬೋಳಾರ್ Bolar, ಎರಿಮಾಲು Erimaalu • Malayalam: ചീനിമരം Cheenimaram, വെള്ളച്ചീനി Vellacheeni • Marathi: जंगली भेंडी Jangli bhendi • Nepali: मैन-काठ Main-kath • Sinhala: මුගුණ Muguna, මුගුණු Mugunu • Tamil: சீனிமரம் Chinimaram, சோலை Cholai • Mizo: Thingdawl
Botanical name: Tetrameles nudiflora    Family: Tetramelaceae (False hemp family)
Synonyms: Anictoclea grahamiana, Tetrameles grahamiana
Shidam Tree is a large, buttressed, deciduous tree, growing up to 40 m tall. Bark is greyish white, smooth; blaze cream. Branchlets are round, warty. Leaves are arranged alternately, spirally, crowded at twig ends. Leaf stalk is up to 10 cm long, velvety. Leaves are up to 12 x 10 cm, broadly ovate to rounded, long-pointed, base heart-shaped, irregularly toothed, somewhat leathery, hairless above, velvety beneath, 3-5 nerved at base. Flowers are unisexual, dioecious. Male flowers are borne in velvety panicles, greenish-yellow, stalkless. Female flowers are stalkless, in spikes. Capsule is faintly 8-ribbed, glandular, urn-shaped, 0.4 cm long; seeds many, minute. Shidam tree is found at altitudes of 200-500 m in forests in tropical Himalayas (Nepal to Bhutan), large parts of India, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-China, Malaysia east to the Moluccas.
Identification credit: Shrikant Ingalhalikar Photographed at Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra.
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