Habit : 4-6 feet high, young parts glandular-pubescent, branches knotty and crooked, divaricate, usually ending in a sharp spine.
Leaves : 1-3 foliolate, leaflets subsessile, rhomboid-ovate, serrate-toothed in the upper part, smooth and shining the lateral leaflets when present less than half the size of the terminal ones.
Flowers :
Flowers in fascicles of 2-3, pedicels very short.
Calyx campanulate, glandular-hairy; lobes 4-5, triangular, as long as the tube.
Petals brownish-red, broadly linear, nearly thrice the length of the calyx, reflexed at the apex. Stamens 8-10, alternately long and short, half the length of the petals.
Disk 8-10-lobed, the alternate sinuses deeper and in these are inserted the shorter stamens.
Ovary oblong-ovoid, attenuated into the style.
Fruit : Drupes red when ripe, ovoid, acute, epicarp 4-valved, pyrenes ovate, acute, readily splitting into 2.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - April
Significance :
The gum-resin known as Gugal or Indian Bdellium is obtained from the plant.
