Kath Badam Ful (কাঠ বাদাম ফুল) - Terminalia catappa

Common Name :	Bengal almond, Sea almond, etc.
Bengali Name :	Kath Badam Ful (কাঠ বাদাম ফুল).
Botanical Name :	Terminalia catappa
Synonym :	Terminalia procera Roxb
Family :	Combretaceae

কাঠ বাদাম খাবার জিনিস হলেও গাছটা কিন্তু দেখতে অনেক সুন্দর ... বড় বড় ঘন সবুজ পাতায় ঠাসা এই গাছ ... এর সাথে রয়েছে ধাপে ধাপে সাজানো পাতার স্তর ... গাছটার আকার অনেকটাই বৌদ্ধদের প্যাগোডার মতন ... এজন্য এই গাছকে পার্ক বা রাস্তার পাশে হরহামেশাই দেখা যায় ... ঘন পাতা থাকায় এই গাছের নিচে প্রচুর ছায়া পাওয়া যায় ... বড় বড় পাতার মাঝে পাপড়ি বিহীন এই গাছের ফুল অনেক ছোট তাই খুব সহজেই কারো চোখে পরে না ...

Kath Badam (কাঠ বাদাম) is a lash green small to medium sized tree but it's deciduous. This is native to Asian territory. Botanical name is Terminalia catappa from the plant family Combretaceae. We call this as Kath Badam (কাঠ বাদাম) in Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ). Common name is Green Field Almond, Sea Almond, Bengal Almond, Indian Almond, etc.

This is mainly a 'single stem' plant which is having a pagoda shaped and having multiple layers in between. Leathery glossy Leafs are broad, oval shaped and upper side is dark green and bottom side is slight pale. Before the winter, the plant totally sheds its leafs. Before the shedding, the leafs use to turn into brown/orange/red in color which looks gorgeous that time. During spring, the tree starts to bring new leafs and covers the whole tree with mature leafs within 2/3 days at max. It's a very fast growing tree.

Flowers are very small and use to come as a cluster around a raceme. Petal-less tinny flowers are having a showy bract that resembles the petal and has a star shape. Same raceme holds both the male and female flowers. Most of the male flowers use to be at the top of the raceme and the female flowers are at the lower side. Fruits are having a size of a golf ball but its elliptical or oval in shaped. Small fleshy portion of the fruit is covered with a hard cork like otter shell.

A closer look to the flower.

This tree looks beautiful for it's layered architecture. That's why you'll see this plant plenty at the parks or yards. Also its a shade providing plant as it is dense with broad leafs.

We had a break under this tree as we were tired by walking mile after mile near Mohuri (মহুরী).

Bengal almond fruit.

Bengal almond fruit.

Photos of this article were taken from the several locations of Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) as mentioned below:
1) March 2013: Mohuri project, Feni (মহুরী প্রজেক্ট, ফেনী),
2) March 2015: Banani, Dhaka (বনানী, ঢাকা),
3) April 2014: Shahbag, Dhaka (শাহবাগ, ঢাকা),


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/