77
Ficus
tsjahela Burm. f.
Synonym : No synonyms are recorded
for this name.
Family
: Moraceae
Local Names
: Kaaral, Chela, Kara
Flowering
and fruiting period:
March – April
Distribution: Peninsular India and Sri Lanka
Habitat: Moist deciduous forests, also in the plains;
often epiphytic and later becoming independent
IUCN
status:
Data Deficient
Endemic: No
Uses: Young leaves used as vegetable. Bark is
astringent and blood purifier, used for the treatment of oedema, skin disease,
diarrhoea, menorrhagia, leucorrhoea.
Key
Characters:
Deciduous trees, often epiphytic, to 15
m high; aerial roots absent; bark surface dark brown, rough. Leaves simple,
alternate spiral, yellowish-red; lamina oblong, margin entire, looped near the
margin. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, sessile; flowers of 4
kinds; male flowers few, sessile, only near the mouth of receptacle, tepals
2-3, ovate, red; female flowers sessile, tepals 3-4, red; ovary superior,
obovate, dark red; gall
