The Babul Tree

 

ACACIA ARABICA

Family – Leguminosae

Scientific name – Acacia arabica

COMMON NAMES:

1. It is commonly called as the Babul tree.
2. Gum Arabic
3. Kikar or Babul in Hindi
4. Babla in Bengali
5. Karu-valam in Tamil and Malayalam
6. Baval in Gujarati

GENERAL INFORMATION OF THE BABUL TREE:

1. It is the small medium sized tree with dark-coloured rough bark.
2. Young trees armed with strong straight ivory-white spines which may be 2 inches long.
3. These spines occur in pairs at the leaf-stalk arid are absent on old trees.
4. Branches subject to browsing by cattle are particularly well armed.
5. These trees leaves are compound, divided up into a great number of very small leaflets.
6. Flowers in golden balls about 0.5 in. diam.  The individual flowers being very small.
7. Fruit is a grey velvety pod more or less constricted between the seeds.
8. Flowers of these trees are appears during and after the rains, July to November.

USES OF THE BABUL TREE:

1. All parts of these trees are useful and important to the village people.
2. Branches and the leaves are cut down and used as the food for the cattle and the goats.
3. The heavy wood is used as the fuel and charcoal, and is also used for making the farm tools.
4. The gum, which comes from the trunk and oozes out of damaged parts of the bark from February to March which used for making sweets and glue.
5. The twigs(a slender woody shoot growing from a branch or stem of tree or shrub) are used for cleaning the teeth.
6. Lac is also obtained from this tree.
7. The thorns are used as pins.