• 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 cinerea L.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Dichrostachys cinerea (L.) Wight. & Arn.
• Common name : Sickle Bush, Bell mimosa, Kalahari Christmas tree, Marabou-thorn, Princess's Earrings, Sickle bush
• Vernacular name : Vurttuli, Kheri (Hindi); Banni, Vadavarda gida (Kannada); Vedathalla, Vidathalan (Tamil); Veltura chettu, Velthuru (Telugu); Koiridyo (Oria); Vellantarah (Sanskrit); Sigam kati (Marathi); Veeravriksham, Vidatthal, Vedathala (Malayalam)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Scrub forests and foot hills of dry deciduous forests
• Comments / notes : On plains to 500m. Also in poor soil.
• Key identification features : Thorny small tree; flowers in spike with two colored stamens; pod twisted
• Flower, Fruit : April-February
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Anantapur district, Chittoor district, Kadapa district, East Godavari district, Guntur district, Krishna district, Kurnool district, Nellore district, Prakasam district, Srikakulam district, Vishakapatnam district, Vizianagaram district, West Godavari district
  • Telangana : Nalgonda district, Khammam district, Mehboobnagar district
  • Karnataka : Ballari district, Chamarajanagar district, Kolar district
  • Kerala : Kasaragod district, Palakkad district, Idukki district
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Odisha : Angul district, Balasore district, Bargarh district, Bolangir district, Boudh district, Cuttack district, Deogarh district, Dhenkanal district, Gajapati district, Ganjam district, Kalhandi district, Kandhamal district, Kendrapara district, Keonjhar district, Khurda district, Koraput district, Malkangiri district, Mayurbhanj district, Puri district, Rayagada district,Sambalpur district, Sundergarh district
  • Tamil Nadu : Coimbatore district, Dindigul district, Dharmapuri district, Kanchipuram (Changalpattu-CGP) district, Karur district, Krishnagiri district, Madurai district, Namakkal district, Pudukkottai district, Sivaganga district, Salem district, Tiruchirapalli district, Tiruvannamalai district, Villipuram district, Vellore district
• Native : India, Sri Lanka
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Java, Africa, Australia. Introduced elsewhere
• Conservation Status : Least Concern (LC)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2001 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 2; J.L.Ellis, 1987- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; Kamble & Pradhan, 1988. Flora of Akola District, Maharashtra. Botanical Survey of India
• 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=Dichrostachys cinerea. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

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