Caesalpinia bonduc

• Botanical Name : Caesalpinia bonduc (L.) Roxb.
• Synonyms : Caesalpinia crista Thunb., Guilandina bonduc L.
• Common Name : Kachka, Crested Fever Nut
• Plant Family : Caesalpiniaceae
• Plant Form : Climbers
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan, Aranya Van

About Caesalpinia bonduc Plant :

• Habit : An extensive climber with branches grey-downy, armed with hooked and straight hard yellow prickles.
• Leaves :
  • Petiolate, stipulate, stipules a pair of reduced pinnae at the base of the leaf, pinnae 6-8 pairs.
  • Leaflets 6-9 pairs, membranous, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, strongly mucronate, glabrous above, more or less puberscent beneath.
• Inflorescence : Long peduncled terminal and axillary racemes.
• Flowers :
  • Pedicellate, pedicels brown-downy, bracts squarrose, linear, acute, fulvous-hairy.
  • Calyx fulvous-hairy, lobes obovate-oblong, obtuse.
  • Petals oblanceolate, yellow.
  • Filaments of the stamens declinate, flattened at the base, clothed with long white silky hairs.
• Fruit : Pods shortly stalked, oblong, densely armed on the faces with wiry prickles. Seeds 1-2, oblong, lead-coloured.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - October.
• Significance : Found in wastelands.