Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: In tribal society, the tree is known as ‘Karam’; in Bengali, this tree is called ‘Keli-Kadam’. In Sanskrit literature, the name is found as ‘Girikadamba’; that is, a deciduous species of Kadam that grows on the low hills of the Indian plateau. In Assamese, the tree is known as ‘Tarakkapa’.
Some people affectionately call it ‘Haldu’ for the yellow color of the flower. The English name is Yellow Teak or Halud Segun; or Saffron Teak. The scientific name of the tree of the Rubiaceae family (the family of coffee trees) is Adina cordifolia (Roxb.) Hook. f. Ex Brandis. The tree is also recorded in botany textbooks as Haldina cordifolia (Roxb.) Ridsdale. This tree, about 20 meters high, blooms beautiful flowers from June to August. This tree is a unique resource of the deciduous forests of India; Southeast Asia is probably the native land of this tree. Apart from India, the spread of this tree in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, South China, Vietnam, Malaysia is remarkable. The color of the bark of the tree is light brown, the bark is shallow and the ground is rough and uneven. 1000 to 2000 millimeters of rainfall and 25 to 35 degrees Celsius temperature are necessary for the growth of this tree; this tree prefers slightly acidic soil. The various medicinal properties of the tree have made it revered in tribal societies.