SAHYARU

(Debregeasia hypoleuca)

A tree of sahyaru

Family: Urticaceae

Other names:  Sansaru, siaru, tussara, tussiari.

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Sahyaru is a wild growing tree occurring in ravines and shady forests of the of the Western Himalayas from Kashmir to Kumaon at altitudes of 3000 – 5000 ft.

Description:

A large shrub or small tree, softly pubescent, upto 3 m high.

            Leaves alternate, short stalked, broadly or narrowly lanceolate, 7-17 cm, long pointed, base 3-nervd; teeth numerous, regular sharp; upper surface rough, lower white tomentose; stipules 2-parted.

            Flowers unisexual, interspersed with numerous bracteoles, in rounded, sessile, axillary clusters; male and female flowers on different plants; male flowers  with tomentose perianth, 4-parted,; stamens 4; female flowers with tubular perianth, narrowed to a minute, 4 toothed mouth, more or less adnate to the enclosed ovary; stigma resembling a sessile tuft of hairs.

            Fruit a drupe, small, yellow to rusty orange, aggregated in a head.

Utilization:

The fruits are edible.  These taste sweet with a pleasant bend of acid.  The pulp is somewhat dry but tastes pleasant.  The fruits are just eaten by local people and are not traded.

            A fibre is extracted from the bark like hemp.  This fibre is used for making ropes.

            The leaves are eaten by goat.

Cultivation:

Sahyaru grows in wild only.  It also does not figure in the domestication programme of any agency in India.  So nothing is known about its propagation.

            As Sahyaru is a useful multipurpose tree, so it should be domesticated.