Trees & Plants

Black plum

Dhanbu gas

Syzygium cumini (L.) Skeels

Common in homesteads in most of the islands A multipurpose tree suitable for avenue planting, timber and as a source of edible fruits and medicine. The timber is hard and used for construction purposes. The bark is sweet, carminative, diuretic, m digestive, anthelmintic and stoma

Details

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uses: A multipurpose tree suitable for avenue planting, timber and as a source of edible fruits and medicine. The timber is hard and used for construction purposes. The bark is sweet, carminative, diuretic, m digestive, anthelmintic and stomachic. Juice of the leaves is given for dysentery. The fruits are a remedy for diarrhea, splenopathy, × urethrorrhea and ringworm. Th reat & damage: The tree is reported to be invasive in Florida (USA), South Africa and in several Pacific Islands. It can form a dense cover and prevent regeneration of native species. or
family: Myrtaceae
synonym: Eugenia jambolana Lam., Myrtus cumini L., Syzygium jambolanum (Lam.) DC.
description: Evergreen trees, to 30 m high, bole often crooked, bark 8-10 mm of thick, light grey, mottled with dark grey, × rough. Leaves simple, opposite, 7.5-18 2.5-8 cm, elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic- Th obovate or ovate-obovate, base acute, apex be acuminate, minutely punctate; lateral nerves many, parallel, close; petiole 10-25 mm a long. Flowers 1 cm across, greenish-white, sessile, in compound trichotomous cymes from leafless nodes, sometimes terminal and × axillary. Calyx tube 2 3 mm, turbinate; lobes 4, obscure. Petals 4, calyptrate. Stamens many, 2-5 mm long. Fruit a berry, oblong or globose, black with pink mesocarp.
native range: India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar
distribution: Asia, Africa, South, Central and North America and Oceania
english names: Black plum · Jambol · Java plum Th
flowering fruiting: December – April
occurrence maldives: Common in homesteads in most of the islands