Bark
Typically grey-brown, smooth or vertically fissured, often with lenticels, and breaks into channeled pieces that are ash-grey externally and yellowish-white internally.
Pongamia pinnata
Syn. Derris indica
IUCN Red List
Least Concern
(LC)
Local name
- Pongam Tree (English)
- Karanj (Hindi)
- Karanja (Gujarati)
Tree type
Evergreen
Deciduous
Family: Fabaceae
20m
Indicated uses
Medicinal
Edible
Ornamental
Avenue
Other
Flowering & fruiting
Flowering
Fruiting
Key characters
Leaves
Pinnate with 5–7 broad leaflets.
Flower
Small, fragrant, pea-like (papilionaceous) blooms, typically white or pinkish-white with purple/brown veins.
Fruit / Seeds
Hard, woody, flattened, oblong pod, typically containing one kidney-shaped seed, reddish-brown, about 2 cm long.
Did you know?
Before modern toothbrushes became common, the twigs of the Karanja tree (Pongamia pinnata) were used as chew sticks (datan) in rural India for traditional oral hygiene.
Distribution
Tropical & Subtropical Asia to W. Pacific, Uganda, Windward Is.