BAIROLA
(Cordia vestita)

A herbarium specimen of bairola plant

Family: Boraginaceae

Synonyms: Cordia incana

Other names: Kumpaiman, Lassuri

Bairola is a medium sized tree that grows wild in North India and Pakistan.  This is, however, not a plant of very common occurrence.

Bairola  bears small fruits which are eaten mostly by children.  This plant seems to be a native of this region only.

Description:

A deciduous polygamous tree with densely tomentose branchlets.

Leaves 7-12 x 4.5-12 cm, broadly ovate to obovate, obtuse or acute, base truncate or cuneate, margin undulate. Upper surface scabrid and darker in colour, lower dense grey-white tomentose. Petiole up to 3.5 cm long.

Drawings of various parts of a bairola tree

Flowers in dense cymes, yellowish-white. Pedicel 8-15 mm, tomentose. Calyx 8-15 mm long, 5-lobed, ribbed, tomentose on the outside. Corolla tube equalling calyx, hairy within. Limb 11-12 mm broad; lobes 5, obtuse-crenulate, filaments hairy at base.

Fruit ellipsoid drupe, 15-17 mm long.

Utilization:

The fruits are edible and eaten by local people.  The fruit is said to have medicinal value.  It is demulcent, expectorant and astringent in effects.

            The wood is durable.  It is used by villagers for making wheels.  It is also for furniture, paneling, picture frames and ornamental boxes.

Cultivation:

Bairola can be propagated by seed.  It is not cultivated.  However, chance seedlings growing here and there in the villages are protected by villagers.