• 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 sinuata Lour.
• Synonym(s) : Mimosa concinna Willd.; Acacia concinna (Will.) DC.; Acacia rugata (Lam.) J. Voigt 1845 illeg. name; Mimosa rugata Lam. 1783; Senegalia rugata Britton & Rose 1928
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Acacia sinuata (Lour.) Merr.
• Common name : Soap-Nut Acacia, Washing Pod Tree, Ritha, Soapnut acacia
• Vernacular name : Shikakai, Satala (Hindi); Shikakaai balli, Seege kai (Kannada); Seeyakkaai, Sigakai, Seekai, Shivakai (Tamil); Shikayi (Telugu); Sikai (Oria); Saptala (Sanskrit); Sikekai (Marathi); Charmalentha, Charmanthala, Cheeka, Chekkakka, Cheenikka, Cheevikka, Perumkai, Shivakai (Malayalam)
• Habit : Climbing shrub
• Habitat : Moist deciduous forests
• Comments / notes : In foothills to 1200m.
• Key identification features : Very prickly, stout, Climbing shrub
• Flower, Fruit : January-June
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Srikakulam district, Vishakapatnam district, East Godavari district, Kadapa district
  • Karnataka : Ballari district, Kolar district, Bengaluru district, Chikkamagaluru district, Chitradurga district, Dakshina Kannada district, Davanagare district, Hassan district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, Shivamogga district, Tumakuru district, Udupi district, Uttara Kannada district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
  • Maharashtra : Akola district
  • Odisha : Puri district, Angul district, Ganjam district
  • Tamil Nadu : Dharmapuri district, Salem district, Kanchipuram (Changalpattu-CGP) district, Coimbatore district, The Nilgiri district, Tirunelveli district, Tiruchirapalli district
• World Distribution : India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South China, Malaysia, New Guinea
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• 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 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; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 - Hassan; Saldanha, 1984; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 - Flora of Bangalore district, Karnataka state; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; Manjunath et al., 2003 – 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=Acacia sinuata. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

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