Butea monosperma

• Botanical Name : Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub.
• Synonyms : Erythrina monosperma Lamk., Butea frondosa Koenig ex Roxb.
• Common Name : Khakhro, Palash, Flame of the Forest
• Plant Family : Papilionaceae
• Plant Form : Tree
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 6, 11, 12, 23, 28
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra, Basan

About Butea monosperma Plant :

• Habit : An erect deciduous tree with young parts hairy.
• Bark : Light brown or greyish.         
• Leaves : Tri-foliate, leaflets coriaceous, roundish-ovate, leathery in texture.
• Flowers :
  • In big racemes, orange-red, bracts and bracteoles small, calyx campanulate, silky hairy outside, velvety inside, petals equal, silky hairy, keel semicircular, beaked.Stamens 10, diadelphous.
  • Ovary stalked, style incurved.
• Fruit : Pods thin, downy bright 1-2 seeded.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : February-March
• Significance :
  • Used for road-side plantation.
  • Leaves serve as plates for domestic purposes.
  • Flowers yield a yellow dye and hence are also used in the festival of Holi.
  • A gum exudates from the tree and is used in medicine as powerful astringent that is given in diarrhea and dysentery.
  • Seeds are antihelmintic.