• Family : MIMOSACEAE
  (Pea Or Bean Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : BABOOL FAMILY (बबूल फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : LEGUMINOSAE
• Subfamily : Mimosoideae
• Basionym : Mimosa amara Roxb.
• Synonym(s) : Acacia amara (Roxb.) Willd.; Acacia wightii Graham ex Wight & Arn.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Albizia amara (Roxb.) B.Boivin
• Common name : Oil cake tree
• Vernacular name : Unjal (Hindi); Chigare, Tugli mara (Kannada); Usilai, Wunja (Tamil); Nallrange, Chikreni (Telugu); Chalavagai, Nenmenivaka, Oonjal, Varacchi (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Dry deciduous forests
• Comments / notes : A dominant tree at the foothills and lower hills from 500-1200m.
• Key identification features : Deciduous, Moderate-sized tree
• Flower, Fruit : March-December
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : East Godavari district, Kadapa district, Chittoor district, Kurnool district, Anantapur district, West Godavari district, Srikakulam district, Vishakapatnam district
  • Karnataka : All districts of Karnataka
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Palakkad district, Idukki district
  • Odisha : Common in forests
  • Tamil Nadu : Vellore district, Tiruvannamalai district, Tiruchirapalli district, Dharmapuri district, Tiruchirapalli district
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Tropical Africa
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Naidu, M.T. & O.A. Kumar 2015. Tree species diversity in the Eastern Ghats of Northern Andhra Pradesh, India. JoTT 7 (8): 7443-7459; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 – Flora of Hassan District; Saldanha, 1984; Gowda, 2004 – Flora of Sringeri; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 – Flora of Bangalore; Rao & Razi, 1981 – Flora of Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 – Flora of Coorg; Manjunath et al., 2003 – Flora of Davanagere.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Albizia amara. Downloaded on 2 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings

Field Image(s)