Emblic myrobalan, Nelli
Scientific Name :
Phyllanthus emblica L.
Synonym(s) :
Cicca emblica (L.) Kurz
Local/Common name(s) :
Nelli, Emblic myrobalan
Family :
Euphorbiaceae
Habit :
Tree
Flowering/Fruiting Time :
Throughout
Habitat :
Dry and moist deciduous forests, also cultivated in the plains
Endemic :
No
Status (IUCN) :
Least concern (LC)
Distribution :
Nativity :
Indigenous
Uses :
Medicine, Food, Dye, gum, Detergent, Tannin, Oil, Ink, Fodder
Description (Morphology) :
Deciduous trees, to 15 m high, bark grey-brown, rough, irregularly flaking. Leaves simple, altemate, bifarious on short deciduous branchlets, closely overlapping, subsessile, oblong or linear-oblong, apex obtuse and shortly apiculate, base round, glabrous, membranous, nerves obscure; stipules minute, lateral, linear. Flowers unisexual, 2-3 mm across, greenish-yellow, densely clustered in leaf axils. Male flowers: tepals 6, oblanceolate, 1.5 mm, obtuse, stamens 3, anthers oblong, connate by their connectives; apiculate; disc glands 6. Female flowers: tepals 6, oblanceolate, obtuse; ovary superior, 1.5 mm, 3-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; styles 3, broadly fimbriate, recurved, stigmatiferous. Fruit a capsule subglobose, dehiscing into 6 cocci, disc enlarged to give an appearance of fleshy yellowish green, indehiscent berry.