Plant Charoli

Spice:

Charoli

Botanical Name:

Buchanania cochinchinensis

Botany:

The tree grows to about 20 metres (66 feet). Young branches are covered with dense, matted, woolly hairs. The leaves are 10–20 by 6–9 centimetres (3.9–7.9 by 2.4–3.5 inches), broadly oblong with emarginate (slightly indented at the tip) apices and rounded bases. The flowers are white and 0.3–0.4 centimetres (0.12–0.16 inches) in diameter. The drupes are 0.4–1 centimetre (0.16–0.39 inches) in diameter and subglobose (inflated, but not quite spherical) in shape. When ripe, they are stone hard and reddish-purple in color. Flowering occurs March–April, and the fruit is generally harvested in the months of April to June.

Cultivation:

The species is not commercially cultivated in India. The fruit is collected by local people from the forests and sold directly to the local markets. With a potential annual production of 5000 metric tonnes, Chhattisgarh is the highest-producing state in India for charoli fruit. Leafhoppers, mealybugs, and bark-eating caterpillars (Indarbela spp.) are important pests of B. cochinchinensis, while gummosis and powdery mildew represent important pathogens

Wikipedia URL:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchanania_cochinchinensis