ဆိတ်ချေး

Myanmar Name – ဆိတ်ချေး (Seik – che)

Common Name – Spinous Kino Tree

Botanical Name – Brideliaretusa (L.) A.Juss

Family Name – Phyllanthaceae

Habitat – Maharashtra: Common throughout Karnataka: Belgaum, Chikmagalur, Mysore, N. Kanara Kerala: All districts Tamil Nadu: All districts

Habit – Tree, Deciduous trees, to 20 m high

Bark – bark greyish-brown, blaze red; young trees armed with sharp thorns; branchlets thinly hairy. 

Leaves – Leaves simple, alternate; stipules 7 mm long, lateral, lanceolate, deciduous; petiole 9-15 mm long, stout, pubescent when young; lamina 5-22 x 3-11 cm, broadly elliptic, oblong, elliptic-oblong, obovate or obovate-oblong.

Flower And Inflorescence – Flowers unisexual; greenish-yellow, sessile or shortly pedicellate, crowded in dense axillary or terminal, some times paniculate spikes often exceeding the leaves; bracts scaly; male flowers: 7 mm across, tepals 10, biseriate, valvate; outer tepals 3 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, thick, truncate, shortly connate, acute, inner ones 2 mm, obovate, cuneate, obtuse, fimbriate; stamens 5, monadelphous, born on a gonophore, exserted; filaments 0.7 mm, anthers oblong; pistillode bifurcate; disc annular; female flowers: 6.5 mm across, tepals 10.  .

Fruit And Seed – Fruit a drupe, 7-8 mm across, purplish-black, seated on the persistent, slightly enlarged calyx, pyrenes 2, epicarp crustaceous; seed one in each pyrene

Flowering and Fruiting Time – Flowering and fruiting: August-December

Usage – The bark is medicinal. Relieves viral infections and prostatitis.