Vern. : — Phársá dhámani (H. and B.) ; Dhâman Karkani (Bomb) ; Olat (Santa!) ; Khesla, kasul (Gond) ; Thada, tharra (Tam.) ; Charachi, tharrah, Udúpai, tada (Tel.) ; Thadsal, dadsal, batala, bútále (Kan.)
Habitat : — Hot dry forests throughout Western India, ascending 4,000 feet in the Himalaya. Western Peninsula, Burma, Ceylon low country.
A large deciduous tree, with cinereous exfoliating bark. Leaves ovate, sometimes rhomboidal or 3-lobed, obliquely cordate, acute or obtuse, acuminate at apex, bluntly crenate-serrate, sparsely stellate-pubescent or glabrous above, stellate-tomentose, often white beneath, stellate-pubescent on the nerves ; basal nerves 5 ; blade 2-5½ in. by 1-4in., petiole ½-lin. long; stipules ½in. long, leafy falcate, veined and auricled, deciduous. Flowers small, in axillary umbels ; peduncles ½-lin. long, axillary, 3-8 fascicled, 3-flowered ; pedicels shorter than the peduncles ; buds ovoid, grey-tomentose, 5-ribbed ; bracteoles linear-lanceolate. Sepals linear-ovate, ½in. long, glabrous, white tomentose outside and yellowish within. Petals ovate, emarginate, yellow, turning purple, much shorter than the sepals ; basal gland green and densely white-villous on the margins and often more than ⅓- the length of the petal. Torus short-ribbed, glabrous, obscurely-toothed and hairy at top. Stamens, with purple filaments and yellow anthers. Ovary globose, villous ; style longer than the stamens ; stigma peltate, irregularly 5-lobed. Drupe 2-4 lobed, but not deeply, of the size of a pea, black ; lobes several-seeded.
The fruit is said to be eaten (Trimen).
Parts used : — The bark and wood.
Uses : — in the Konkan the bark, after removal of the tuber, is rubbed down with water, and the thick mucilage strained from it and given in 5-tola doses, with 2 tolas of the flour of Panicum miliaceum (warri) as a remedy for dysentery (Dymock).
The bark is also employed externally to remove the irritation from cow-itch.
