Flowering and fruiting period: March - May

Distribution: India and Sri Lanka; widely cultivated in South East Asia, Malaysia,Tropical Africa and the United States

Habitat: Grown in temple premises and homesteads

Uses: Sacred Indian Plant. Fruits are eaten fresh or made into jam and drinks. The young leaves can be eaten as salad. The sliced, sun-dried fruit are used to improve appetite, and to treat diarrhoea and dysentery. The pulp is also used to treat respiration disorders. Flowers are distilled to make perfumes. Fruit pulp is used as detergent. The wood is hard but not durable, used to make handles of small tools.

Key Characters: Trees upto 12 m tall, deciduous; branchlets cylindric; spines present. Leaves alternate-3-foliolate, sometimes 5-foliolate, ovate-elliptic. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, racemose or corymbose. Flowers bisexual, greenish white or yellow, fragrant. Calyx cupular; lobes 4 or 5, 3-angled. Petals 5, fleshy and white. Stamens numerous in 2 or 3 series. Ovary ovoid; style short; stigma oblong. Berries ovoid, woody, yellowish, many seeded; seeds oblong and flat.