Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb.

 

 Family: Ebenaceae

Vernacular names: Kari, beediyila maram

Habit: Tree

Habitat: Dry Evergreen to Dry Deciduous Forests

Distribution: India, Sri Lanka

Flowering and fruiting: April--June

Key identification features: Bark black or dark brown, very thick, corky, deeply fissured vertically, flakes rectangular, leaves thick, pale green, with soft hair, fruit, yellowish and fleshy with enlarged calyx like brinjal.

Uses: Leaves used to wrap tobacco dust to make beedis, hence called ‘Beedi mara’ locally. In the past, black trunk was used to make black keys of the piano.