Local names:
English (honey tree,butter tree), Hindi (tittinam,nattiluppai,mowa,moha,mahua,madurgam), Trade name (mahua,butter tree)
Madhuca latifolia is a large, much branched deciduous tree up to 18 m high and 80 cm dbh. Bole short, crown rounded, bark grey to black with vertical cracks, exfoliating in thin scales. Leaves oblong-shaped, rigid, clustered at the end of branches, 6-9 cm x 13-23 cm, thick and firm, exuding a milky sap when broken. Young leaves pinkish and wooly underneath. Flowers cream, corollas fleshy, juicy, clustered at the end of branches. Fruit ovoid, fleshy, greenish, 3-5 cm long, 1-4 seeded. Seed large, 3-4 cm long, elliptical, flattened on one side. The specific epithet latifolia is derived from the Latin Lati- (broad) and –folius (leaved).
Ecology
Mahua is a frost resisting tree of the dry tropics and sub-tropics, common in deciduous forests and dry sal plain forests. The tree is usually found scattered in pastures and cultivated fields in central India. It is extensively cultivated near villages.
Native range
India
Tree management
Mahua can be planted at a spacing of 3-8 m x 3-8 m and worked on 25-30 year coppice cycle to produce a mean annual increment of 3-5 cu. m/ha. Fire tracing and fencing of plantations are essential in the early stages along with clean weeding and soil working around seedlings. The tree is a light demander, drought resistant and frost hardy. It coppices well if felled in the hot season.
There are about 450 seeds/kg. Seeds are produced plentifully every second or third year. They lose viability within a short period and the oily fruit should be sown directly in the field as the seeds become available.
Mahua is a frost resisting tree of the dry tropics and sub-tropics, common in deciduous forests and dry sal plain forests. The tree is usually found scattered in pastures and cultivated fields in central India. It is extensively cultivated near villages.
M. latifolia is propagated by direct seeding, seedlings or stumps. Seeds should be sown when fresh in long polypots to accommodate the long taproot. Seedlings should be ready to plant in 2-4 months, or can be maintained for longer with regular root pruning. Seedlings are frost tender. 1-year-old stumps establish more successfully than bare root seedlings.
Poison: Mahua oil is used to treat seeds against pest infestation.
Mahua is planted on wasteland with hard lateritic soils in India.
Erosion control: Mahua has a large spreading superficial root system that holds soil together.
The sweet, fleshy corolla is eaten fresh or dried, powdered and cooked with flour. The fruit contains valuable oil that is sometimes used for cooking by the locals. Outer fruit coat is eaten as a vegetable and the fleshy cotyledons are dried and ground into a meal. Ripe fruits are used for fermenting liquor.
Leaves, flowers and fruits are lopped for goats and sheep. Seed cake is also fed to cattle.
Timber: The heartwood is reddish brown, strong, hard and durable; very heavy (929 kg/cu. m), takes a fine finish. It is used for house construction, naves and felloes of cartwheels, door and window frames.
Shade or shelter: The wide spreading crown provides shade for animals.
Lipids: Oil from the fruit kernels principally consists of palmitic and stearic acids and is mainly used for soap and candle making.
Nitrogen fixing: Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal associations and root colonization have been observed in mahua.
Ornamental: Mahua is occasionally planted as an avenue tree.
It is planted along the boundaries of fields.
Soil improver: The seed cake has been used as fertilizer
Intercropping: M. latifolia can be raised with agricultural crops.