Limonia acidissima

Botanical Name – Limonia acidissima

Common Name – Wood Apple, Dadhiphala, Kapittha, Dadhittha, Danthashatha, Kapitya, Kapityama, Pushpaphala (Sanskrit), Kaitha, Kauthh, Kabeet, Katbel (Hindi), Kavath, Kavit (Marathi), Belad (Kannada), Mara (Malayalam), Kothu (Gujrati)

Habit

• Medium sized deciduous tree
• Slow growing
  
  

Habitat – Dry deciduous forest

Distribution – Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh

Specific Properties

• Drought tolerant
• It is adapted to light soil
  
  

Ecology

• Macaques, civets, squirrels feed on fruits
• Birds and bees feed on nectar and pollen
• Elephants feed on leaves
• Larval host plant for Lime Blue, Lime Swallowtail, Common Guava Blue, Common Mormon and Common Peacock Butterflies
  
  

Uses

• Fruits are edible, used to prepare jam, juice, pickle etc
• Leaves are edible, eaten in salad
• Fruit is used for treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, hiccoughs, sore throat, asthama, eye infections, gum diseases also as tonic to liver, lungs, and cardiac tonic
• Leaves are good cure for vomiting, indigestions, hiccups and dysentery, they contain tannins and essential oil
• Its gum is used for adulterant of gum Arabic, in making watercolours, ink, dyes and varnish
• Tree yields, Tannin
  
  

Propagation

• Seed
• Root cuttings
• Air layering