Botanical Name - Hardwickia binata

----- H. binata, Roxb.; F.B.I., II-270. Brandi's Ind, Tree, 250. Gamble's Ind. Timbers, 276. Vern. Anjan. Hind., Mar.; Yeppa, Nara-yeppa, Tel. Kattudugi, Mar.

----- A large deciduous tree, with slender drooping branchlets. Bark dark grey, rough, with irregular vertical cracks, exfoliating in narrow flakes. Leaflets 2, obtuse, oblique, ovate-trapezoid 1-3 in. long, with 4-5 arcuate longitudinal nerves radiating from the base. Flowers small, bisexual, greenish-yellow; racemes lax, in ample axillary and terminal panicles. Sepals petaloid, 1/8 in. long, usually 5, rarely 4. Petals none. Stamens 10, included or exserted, alternately shorter; anthers short versatile. Ovary sessile, 2-ovuled. Pod 2-3 in. long., flat, coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate with parallel longitudinal veins, 1-seeded near the top.

----- A beautiful, graceful tree, plentiful along the Godavari, Mahadeopur and Pakhal Reserves and adjoining forests, and is also found to the North of the Aurangabad district, towards Khandesh and the Ajanta hills and in Amrabad. It is generally of a gregarious habit and is found growing to isolated belts or patches in the forest. The Wood is extremely hard, disk red, streaked with black, often with a purplish tinge, cross and very close-grained. It is used most commonly for house-posts, and these are often ornamented with carved work, for which the wood is very suitable. Locally it is used for agricultural implements and in cart-building for the naves and spokes of the wheels. The average weight of the wood is from 75-80 lbs, per c. ft. The tree is much pollarded for fodder and for manure, as well as for strong fibre yielded by the bark from the branches, universally used for well-ropes and other agricultural purposes. Consequently, large numbers of trees were formerly destroyed, but the practice is now to a great extent stopped. Its reproduction is good, but the seed-years occur at intervals of four or five years, when it gives a profusion of seed and the seedlings spring up quickly, but are killed to the ground year after year by forest-fires and grazing, till, at length, a stronger shoot is developed from the roots reaching moisture, which is able to survive and grow up. a sort of fragrant balsam also exudes from wounds in the bark, but it does not appear to be of any use. This species does not coppice but gives pollard shoots.