Bauhinia racemosa

Botanical Name –Bauhinia racemosa

Common Name – Yamalapatrakah, Yugmapatra (Sanskrit) Jhinjheri, kathmauli, Mahuli, Aashta, Mohla, Dhoraro, Dhondri (Hindi), Apta (Marathi), Kadu mandhara, Basavana padha (Kannada), Apto (Gujrati), Boga Kanchan (Assam)

Distribution

• Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
  
  

Habit

• Small-sized deciduous tree
• Moderate growth rate
  
  

Habitat

• Dry deciduous and mixed deciduous forest
  
  

Specific Properties

• Can grow in dry and harsh conditions
• Drought tolerant
• Suitable for farm forestry as windbreak on farm bunds 
  
  

Ecology

• Deer feed on leaves
• Attracts lots of honeybees and other insects
• Larval host plant for Black Rajah, Tricolour Pied Flat, Plain Tawny Rajah and Lemon Emigrant butterfly species
• Grizzled giant squirrel, Indian Giant Flying Squirrel feeds on seeds
  
  

Uses

• Flower buds are pickled and eaten
• Tree is used in the treatment of headache, fever, skin & blood diseases, jaundice, chronic dysentery, diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, infection of malaria, boil, glandular swelling, tumours, cancer & used as contraceptive
• An extract of the leaves has been proved to show analgesic, anti-pyretic, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, anthelmintic and anti-microbial activity
• It cures scorpion bite, relives food poisoning in cattle
• The leaves are used for making bidis
• Flowers are used in curries and for making chutney
• Leaves as fodder for cattle
• Yields gum and fibre
• Bark is used for tanning, dyeing and making good quality rope
• Wood is used for construction of bridges
  
  

Propagation

• Seeds