Cassia fistula 

Cassia fistula L.

Family :   Caesalpiniaceae 

Common Name :   കണിക്കൊന്ന (Mal)

:   अमलतास (Hin)

:   Indian Laburnum 

IUCN Status :   Least concern (LC) -

This native of India, Deciduous trees, bark thick, surface pale when young, dark grey when old, smooth, exfoliating in hard scales. Leaves paripinnate, alternate; stipules small, free, lateral, cauducous; rachis slender, pulvinate, glabrous; petiole 4-7 mm long, slender, grooved above; lamina ovate, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, base obtuse, round or acute, apex acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, glaucous and puberulent beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 9-25, pinnate, slender, prominent, secondary laterals prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, yellow, in axillary drooping racemes; calyx tube short, ovate, apex obtuse, reflexed; petals obovate, subequal, clawed; stamens 10, all fertile; upper 3 short with erect filaments; anthers basifixed; lower 3 large with curved filaments; anthers 5 mm, dorsifixed; medium 4 with erect filaments; anthers versatile with curved beak; anthers dehiscing by apical pores; ovary half inferior, appressed-pubescent; ovules many; style to 5 mm; stigma punctiform. Fruit a pod cylindrical, black, shortly stipitate, indehiscent, woody, transversely septate; seeds 25-100, 6-8 mm broad, ovoid, pale brown, immersed in pulp. 

NB: A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department to commemorate this tree.

Uses: widely planted as ornamental plant 

Warning: Unverified information The sweet blackish pulp of the seedpod is used as a mild laxative

Distribution: All districts & Indo-Malesia 

Flowering & Fruiting: March-April