Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Bhimal, Bihul

Hindi Name : भीमल | Scientific Name : Grewia optiva
Family : Titiaceae
Uses : Bhimal bark is used for washing hair. It has saponin and is used as shampoo and/or alternative soap. Its leaves are proteinaceous and good for mulching. The fibre obtained from the bark is used for cloth and cordage making. Lopping of the leaves is done for fodder. It has been generally grown for checking soil erosion. It is traditionally used for treating various diseases like, cough, dysentery, diarrhoea, small pox, malaria, typhoid, intestine and bladder with irritable conditions, rheumatism and eczema.
Native: India
General Description:

It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree, 9-12m in height. Crown is spreading, bole is clear, 3-4m in height, and about 1m diameter. Branches are smooth, pale silvery-brown, bark dark brown, thick and roughish, peeling in small woody scales. Blaze is rather fibrous, pale yellow, often tinged pink towards the exterior, juice slimy. Leaves are opposite, 5-13 x 3-6cm, ovate, long-pointed, closely toothed, teeth small, blunt. Leaves are rough and hairy above, velvety beneath. Base is rounded, slightly oblique, 3-nerved. Leaf-stalk is 0.3-1cm long, stout, velvety. Stipules are 0.5cm long, linear subulate, falling off. Flowers are borne 1-8 together, on a solitary stalk, opposite the leaf or exceptionally in leaf axils. The stalk is 2-3.5cm long, densely hairy. Flowers yellowish-red, about 3.5cm across. Sepals 1-1.5cm long, linear oblong, 3-ribbed, green outside, white, pale yellow or red inside. Petals are white or pale yellow, shorter than the sepals, linear, claw distinct. Fruit is a drupe, 1-4 lobed, each lobe about 0.8cm in diameter, olive green then black when ripe. Flowering takes place in April-September.