Phyllanthus emblica L.
| Kannada Name : | Bettada nellikayi |
| Common Name : | Indian gooseberry |
| Family Name : | Phyllanthaceae |
| Scientific Name : | Phyllanthus emblica |
| Species Type : | Indigenous |
| Phenology : | Deciduous |
| Conservation Status : | Least concern |
| Flowering Period : | March - May |
| Fruiting Period : | June - September |
| Origin : | Indian subcontinent |
Uses
The amla fruit is eaten raw or cooked into various dishes, such as dal (a lentil preparation) and amle ka murabbah, a sweet dish made by soaking the berries in sugar syrup until they are candied. It is traditionally consumed after meals. Commonly used in inks, shampoos and hair oils, the high tannin content of Indian gooseberry fruit serves as a mordant for fixing dyes in fabrics.
Description
Deciduous trees, to 15 m high, bark grey-brown, rough, irregularly flaking; blaze pink-red. Leaves simple, alternate, bifarious on short deciduous branchlets, closely overlapping, subsessile, linear, oblong or linear-oblong, glabrous, membranous, base round, apex obtuse and shortly apiculate, margin entire. Flowers unisexual, greenish-yellow, densely clustered in leaf axils. Fruit a drupe, subglobose, disc enlarged, fleshy yellowish-green, indehiscent. Seeds reddish, trigonous, 3, smooth.
