• 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 caesia L.
• Synonym(s) : Acacia intsia Willd. var. caesia (L.) Baker; Acacia columnaris Craib.
• Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Senegalia caesia (L.) Maslin, Seigler & Ebinger
• Common name : Black Catechu, Soap bark
• Vernacular name :
  • Aila, Nikuncam (Hindi)
  • Kadu seege (Kannada)
  • Kari indu, Karinda (Tamil)
  • Korinta, Kondakorinda, Yerracheeki (Telugu)
  • Dentari (Oria)
  • Nikunjika (Sanskrit)
  • Eenga, Eenja, Incha, Palinja, Velutha-incha (Malayalam)
• Habit : Liana
• Habitat : River banks, wasteland, scrub jungles and along hill slopes. Foot hills of Tropical evergreen forests, Tropical semi-evergreen forests
• Comments / notes : In plains to 1000m. Common
• Key identification features : Prickles large; coppery pods turning brown; Woody, armed shrubs; Leaflets 40-50, thinly membranous, sharply acute; Flowers creamy white in globose heads; Pods dark brown, glabrous
• Flower, Fruit : June-April
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Vishakapatnam district, Kadapa district, Chittoor district, Srikakulam district
  • Karnataka : Chikkamagaluru district, Kodagu (Coorg) district, Mysuru district, SHM, Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada district
  • Kerala : Kasaragod district, Kannur district, Wayanad district, Kozhikode district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Kottayam district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
  • Odisha : Gajapati district, Salur-Koraput Ghat (Koraput district), Mayurbhanj district, Cuttack district, Angul district, Dhenkanal district, Puri district, Ganjam district, Khurda district
  • Tamil Nadu : All districts of Tamil Nadu
  • Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand
  • Sikkim : Sikkim
  • West Bengal : Burdwan, Hooghly, Jalpaiguri, Purulia, 24-Parganas
  • Himachal Pradesh : Himachal Pradesh
  • Arunachal Pradesh : Changlang, Dibang valley, Siang, Subansiri
  • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
  • Assam : Assam
  • Nagaland : Nagaland
  • Uttar Pradesh : Uttar Pradesh
  • Jammu and Kashmir : Jammu and Kashmir
  • Mizoram : Mizoram
  • Manipur : Manipur
  • Tripura : Tripura
• Native : Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hainan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
• Exotic/Native : Native
• World Distribution : Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hainan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam
• 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
  • H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa
  • 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
  • Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1
  • Saldanha, 1984
  • Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore
  • Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Flora of Coorg district, Karnataka state
  • Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi
  • Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara.
  • P.K . Hajra ., D.M. Verma and G.S. Giri (1996). Materials For The Flora Of Arunachal Pradesh , Vol (1), Pg : 433
• Read more :
  • Plants of the World Online
  • World Flora Online
  • Global Plants on JSTOR
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Acacia caesia. Downloaded on 1 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Line Drawings

Field Image(s)

Habitat

India Distribution

World Distribution