Jaam or Black plum, Syzygium cumini

-
Jaam or Black plum (Syzygium cumini, family: Myrtaceae) is a medium or large-sized evergreen with spreading and upright branches. The trunk is straight, grey in color and rough. The fruits of the plant is very juicy, nice-colored, tasty and nutritious too. It is a very common tree in Bangladesh. The plant is an evergreen and shadow-giving tree. So it is planted in parks and gardens and beside the avenue and highways. It is found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia as well as Australia. The original home of the plant is considered as India.  

Other names: Indian black berry, Jamun, Jambu

Leaves are simple, green, glabrous, coriaceous, ovate-oblong, 6-15 cm long and 3-9 cm wide, apex pointed, alternate, petioled.


Propagation of the plant is caused by seeds and cuttings. Fruits, roots, leaves, seeds and barks are used in dysentery, diabetes, cough, high blood pressure and lever diseases. A kind of wine can be produced from its juicy fruits. Fruit contains starch, protein, fats, mineral salt and Vitamin B and C. Wood is durable and excellent as fuel but not good enough to make furniture.


 Flowers are whitish, scented, sessile. Flowering occurs in the beginning of summer. It blooms in cluster on cyme inflorescence arising from old stem. 


Fruit is berry, ovoid or round, very juicy, green when raw, deep violet or blackish when ripe. Fruits ripe in late summer. The Hindus and Buddhist of the subcontinent regarded the tree as sacred one. They plant the tree in the courtyard of their shrine. The tree is well described by ancient Sanskrit and Bengali poets. It is called Jambulah in Sanskrit. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Week Star

Kodbel or Elephant wood apple, Feronia limonia

-
Image
Kodbel or Elephant wood apple ( Feronia limonia , family: Rutaceae) is medium-sized fruit-giving tree with straight trunk and numerous branches. Bark is dark grey. It has straight spines in axil. Some parts of the tree are quite fragrant--leaves, ripe fruits, seeds etc. The tree is planted as ornamental one in parks and gardens nowadays in Bangladesh. It is planted in the country as a homestead tree too. Other Bangla names: Koyetbel, Chirpaki. Leaflet is small, 5-7, and 3-4 cm wide, opposite, cuneate or obovate. Leaves are scented.   Flowers are good-looking, showy. Those are reddish; calyx 5-lobbed, triangular; petals ovate. Male and female flowers can be seen in the same panicle. Flower blooms in March-April.  Fruit is round, greenish white or ye l l o w is h w h ite at a glance, 8-10 cm in diameter. Skin is very hard but fragile. The pulp is fleshy and soft. Raw pulp is light brown, ripe is deep chocholate or yelowish brown.  The ripe fruit is qu
Read more

Makal or Mahakal, Trichosanthes tricuspidata

-
Image
Makal or Mahakal ( Trichosanthes tricuspidata , family: Cucurbitaceae) is a woody climber with tendril and branches, attaining a height of 10-12 m. The multiangular-branched plant climbs up very far by holding any tree in the forest. It is found in the hilly areas as well as plain forests and village thickets in Bangladesh. It is also found in Indian subcontinent, Australia and some countries of South and Southeast Asia.  According to ancient Sanskrit scriptures the other names of the plant are Bishala, Mohendro-baruni.  In the Himalayas it has been seen at an altitude of 5000 feet. There are many refferences to the fruit in Bangla and Sanskrit literature. Someone is very nice to look at but he/she is useless--writers usually jokingly give examples of this fruit. Its roots and attractive fruits are packed with medicinal properties.  The size and shape of leaves may vary. These are multilobed or trilobed, alternate, rough in both sides, 5-12 cm long, petioled, cor
Read more

Kulekhara or Talmakhna, Hygrophila auriculata

-
Image
Kulekhara or Talmakhna ( Hygrophila auriculata , family: Acanthaceae) is a stout and erect herb with straight and undivided stem. The spiny plant is very popular as a medicinal plant in Bangladesh as well as the Indian subcontinent. Other names: Kulekkha, Kuiley-rekha,  Kanta kalika, Shoolmordon. Leaves are lanceolate, subsessile, acute at both ends with long whitish hairs, dense with straight and stout thorns that grow from each node. Outer leaves are longer than the inner ones. Both leaves and thorns remain in upward direction.   Flowers in axillary whorls. They are bright violet or bluish purple and red, sometimes whitish with soft and minor hair, corolla 2-lipped. Flower blooms in the winter. Fruit a capsule, 4-8-seeded. Seeds are ovoid (not in the pic). The body of the plant contains alkaloids, phytosterols, stigmasterol, lupeol and essential oils. Its seeds contain oil, enzymes and sterols. The plant is cooling and diuretic in cases of h
Read more