Common name: Sickle Bush • Hindi: कुणाली Kunali, ख़ैरी khairi, वीर तरु Veerataru • Marathi: दुरंगी बबूल Durangi babool, सिगम काठी Sigam kathi • Tamil: Veduttalam • Malayalam: Vitattal • Telugu: Nellajammi • Kannada: Odavinaha, Vaduvarada gida • Oriya: Khoiridya • Gujarati: Mordundiyun, Marud • Sanskrit: Vellantaru, Viradru
Botanical name: Dichrostachys cinerea Family: Mimosaceae (Touch-me-not family)
Synonyms: Cailliea glomerata, Dichrostachys glomerata, Mimosa cinerea
Sickle bush is a beautiful, small Mimosa-related tree, growing up to 8 m
tall. It has bipinnate leaves, 4-8 cm long, 5 to 15 pairs of pinnae, each
with 12 to 30 pairs of leaflets. It blooms with beautiful bottle-brush like
flower heads which are half pink and half yellow. The rear pink part fades
to white with time. The buds look like beautiful pink and yellow mulberry
fruits. The fruit-pod is narrowly oblong, variously curved and/or coiled,
5-7 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide, blackish, glabrous. Sickle bush is native to
India, SE Asia, Africa and Northern Australia.
Flowering: June-August.
| Photographed in Niti Bagh, Delhi. |
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