Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Indian Laurel

Terminalia elliptica

Indian Laurel
Photo: Krish Dulal, CC BY-SA 3.0

Terminalia elliptica is a large deciduous tree of southern and southeast Asian dry and moist forests, grown for timber, silk-worm leaf and shade. It is not commonly grown as a garden or houseplant, so the care fields below are general guidance for a tree in a seasonally dry tropical climate.

Family
Combretaceae (Combret family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply during establishment, then rely mostly on seasonal rain once established.
Soil
Well-drained soil, tolerant of poor and rocky ground.
Temperature
Warm tropical conditions; frost-sensitive when young, protect below 5 °C.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Indian Subcontinent to Indo-China
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Terminalia elliptica (sin. Terminalia tormentosa) is a species of Terminalia native to southern and southeast Asia in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is a prominent part of both dry and moist deciduous forests in southern India up to 1,000 metres (3,300 feet).

Common names are asna; saj or saaj; Indian laurel; marutham (Tamil); matti (Kannada); ain (Marathi); taukkyan (Burma); sadar, matti or marda (India); asana (Sri Lanka); and casually crocodile bark due to the characteristic bark pattern.

Uses

The wood is used for furniture, cabinetwork, joinery, paneling, specialty items, boat-building, railroad cross-ties (treated), decorative veneers and for musical instruments (e.g. for guitar fretboard).

Other Terminalia plants

Arjun · Terminalia australis · Myrobalan · Black Olive · Terminalia calamansanai · Tropical-almond · Myrobalan · Terminalia dhofarica · Kakadu Plum · Ivory Coast almond · Terminalia macroptera · Terminalia mantaly

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Terminalia elliptica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…