Vann
Encyclopedia
Salvadora oleiodes is a small bushy evergreen tree found in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and southern Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. In Iran it is called Tuch (توچ). Common names in Indian subcontinent include Vann, ون/ਵਣ (Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

) जाल/पीलू (Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

), and jar (Sindhi language
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

), in Saraiki language
Saraiki language
Saraiki , transliterated as Sirāikī and sometimes spelled Seraiki and Saraiki, is a standardized written language of Pakistan belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages. It is a language spoken in the heart of Pakistan...

  in Saraiki Wasib called jall, جال Pakistan.

Description

It is a small tree with drooping branches, rarely with proper bole or exceeding a height of 20 feet and a girth of 3 feet. It is very common plant in arid tracts but becomes scarce where rainfall conditions are better. It can withstand great soil salinity. It produces new leaves during April, which on maturity become thick and leathery.

The tree coppices fairly well but regenerates freely by root suckers and natural layering. It is, however, very slow growing but a dense growth is often formed around the parent plant by root suckers and some natural seedlings. The plant provides a dense shade. It is often lopped for camel and goat fodder.

Fruit

Small greenish white flowers are produced in March-April. The fruit is yellow and ripens in the months of May and June. It forms one of the main grazing sources for livestock owned by local farmers. It is often dried and preserved in large quantities. The seeds are spread by birds. The seedlings come up under the parent plant or under other bushes and are somewhat frost-tender.

Habitat

The vann is commonly found in and around Sandal Bar
Sandal Bar
The Sandal Bar is a region between the rivers Chenab and Ravi in Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the Rechna Doab. It spreads over almost 80 km in width and 40 km in length . "Bar", in the local language, means a forested area where there are no resources for cultivation, like water...

, and is reserved for use as grazing sources for local peasant villages. In addition, a number of trees have been preserved to provide shade for cattle.

Wood

The vann is mostly non-woody and the small amount of wood that it has is soft, light, and not particularly useful for any of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

's normal uses, notably building and heat. When burnt, it leaves a large quantity of ash, which can then be boiled down into a substance for treating mange
Mange
Mange is the common name for a class of persistent contagious skin diseases caused by parasitic mites. Since mites also infect plants, birds, and reptiles, the term "mange," suggesting poor condition of the hairy coat due to the infection, is sometimes reserved only for pathological...

 in camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

s.

Pilu tree in Mahabharata

The Mahabharata Book VIII: Karna Parva, Chapter 30, verse 24 mentions tree species as Sami
Prosopis cineraria
Prosopis cineraria is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to arid portions of Western and South Asia, such as the Arabian and Thar Deserts...

, Pilu
Pilu
Pilu is a raga of Indian classical music. It is mostly used in light-classical forms, like the Khayal, of north Indian classical style.-Aroha & Avaroha :Arohana'P 'N S g m P N S''N S G m P N S'S G m P D S'S R m P N S'Avarohana...

 and Karir tree species as under in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 and IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...

:
शमी
Prosopis cineraria
Prosopis cineraria is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to arid portions of Western and South Asia, such as the Arabian and Thar Deserts...

 पीलु करीराणां
Capparis decidua
Capparis decidua is commonly known as kerda, kair, karir, kirir, karril, etc. .- Tree characteristics :...

 वनेषु सुखवर्त्मसु (śamī pīlu karīrāṇāṃ vaneṣu sukhavartmasu)
अपूपान सक्तु पिण्डीश च खाथन्तॊ मदितान्विताः (apūpān saktu piṇḍīś ca khādanto mathitānvitāḥ)

Meaning - "When shall I be amongst those ladies eating cakes of flour and meat and balls of pounded barley mixed with skimmed milk, in the forests, having many pleasant paths of Sami and Pilu and Karira!" (VIII.30.24)

See also

Pīlu
Pilu
Pilu is a raga of Indian classical music. It is mostly used in light-classical forms, like the Khayal, of north Indian classical style.-Aroha & Avaroha :Arohana'P 'N S g m P N S''N S G m P N S'S G m P D S'S R m P N S'Avarohana...

 - Mentioned in Mahābhārata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

.

Salvadora (plant genus)
Salvadora (plant genus)
Salvadora is a genus of tree or shrub in the plant family Salvadoraceae. There are five species, including Salvadora australis, Salvadora oleiodes and Salvadora persica...



Salvadora persica
Salvadora persica
Salvadora persica , is a species of Salvadora....

 -- Toothbrush Tree, Peelu, or Siwak
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK