Albizia lebbeck

Botanical Name – Albizia lebbeck

Common Name – Shirish (Sanskrit), Siris, Siras, Sirin, Sirar, Kalshish, Tantia, Chichola, Kinhi, Koko (Hindi), Shirish (Marathi), Baage mara (Kannada)

Distribution – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan, Gujrat Throughout India except Himalayas

Habit 

• Medium to large sized deciduous tree
• Fast-growing

Habitat 

• Moist and dry deciduous forest
  
  

Specific properties

• Nitrogen fixer
• Pioneer species
• Due to its extensive root system, used as soil binder, for erosion control, for restoration
• Tolerant of degraded or nutritionally poor soils
• Tolerant to wide range of climatic conditions, high salinity and drought conditions
• The seed pods have potential of bioenergy as biodiesel
• Widely planted as an avenue and ornamental tree
• Good for farm forestry
• Shade tree in coffee, tea and cardamom plantations
  
  

Ecology

• Preferred for making hives by wild bees and birds for roosting
• Birds feed on pods
• Birds and butterflies visit flowers for nectar
• Larval host plant for Indian Nawab, Three-spot Grass yellow, White-tipped Lineblue and Zebra Blue butterflies
• Provide ideal habitat to insects such as bees, flies, wasps
• Attracts and gets pollinated by bees, flies, wasps etc
  
  

Uses

• Leaves used as mulch and green manure
• A valued honey tree because of its production of both nectar and pollen
• Bark used for tanning leather, produces red dye, when dried and pounded, used for soap and as fish poison
• The flowers are applied externally to boils and eruptions
• The seeds used in folk medicine as a remedy for eye disease, piles, diarrhoea and seed oil used for leprosy
• The root bark and root gum used to strengthen the gums
• The gum is used to treat toothache
• Stem bark shows anti-asthmatic activity
  
  

Propagation

• Seeds