Plant · P-906

Haritaki

Terminalia chebula

Haritaki, also called chebulic myrobalan, is a slow-growing deciduous tree in the leadwood-tree family, native to mixed deciduous and teak forest from the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka across mainland Southeast Asia to southern China, growing from near sea level up to 2000 metres elevation. It reaches up to 30 metres on a thick, dark, deeply cracked trunk, wants full sun though young trees tolerate light shade, and tolerates sandy, loamy or clay soil across a pH range of roughly 5 to 7.5, doing best where 1000 to 1700 millimetres of rain fall annually while still tolerating both a much drier and a much wetter regime; it needs a nearly frost-free winter and is killed by temperatures near minus 5 Celsius. Growth is slow throughout, and a damaged or coppiced tree resprouts strongly. The sour, astringent fruit is eaten fresh, pickled in brine or fried, its seed kernel eaten like an almond or pressed for oil, and dried fruit is one of the three ingredients combined into the Ayurvedic tonic triphala alongside Amla and Bibhitaki, used across traditional medicine as a laxative, cough and digestive remedy; the tannin-rich pulp additionally supplies a leather-tanning agent and a yellow-to-black dye, and the fallen wood a hard, heavy timber.