Botanical Name - Cassia auriculata

----- C. auriculata, Linn. ; F.B.I. II-263. Brandi's Ind. Trees, 254. Gamble's Ind. Timbers, 273. Vern. Tarwar, Hind. Tangedu, Tel. Tharoda, Mar.

----- A shrub. Bark thin, grey with reddish-brown lenticels, irregular scattered. Leaflets 8-12 pairs, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, mucronate 1/2-1 in. long, with a filiform gland at the base of each pair ; stipules large, foliaceous, persistent. Flowers yellow in terminal corymbose bracteate panicles, the lowest branches in the axils of leaves, the upper supported by pairs of stipules ; Sepals concave, unequal ; Petals clawed crisped on margin, 3/4-1 in. long. Pod 3-4 by 2/3 in., thin, hairy.

----- One of the commonest shrub, growing abundantly in sterile tracts and in all parts of the Deccan. The bark is used for taning, and on the whole, it is perhaps one of the best and most valuable of the indigenous astringent barks for this purpose. All parts of the plant possess much astringency and the leaves, flowers and seeds are used in native medicine, the leaves are also used as a strong manure for, ploughing into rice-fields. The right to colloect the bark is regularly auctioned in all the forests and Government water lands, and brings in a considerable revenue. The demand for this bark is yearly increasing, owing to the opening of local tanneries in manyu of the districts, while it is also largely exported. In order therefore to keep up the supply, it will soon be necessary to protect and regulate the exploitation of such waste areas where it is found in abundance. Gamble mentions " In South India, where the harvesting and sale of ' tangedu ' bark is a most important forest-industry, the first crop is usually obtained when the shrub is five years old and a rotation of about three years is found the best regular treatment. " It is easily cultivated and grows quickly from seed.