DCS Australian Teak & Dhak tree Seed  (2 per packet)

Dhak leavesDhak or palas (Butea frondosais), is a medium-sized deciduous tree. Some botanists call it Butea monosperma. The family is Leguminosae-Papilioneae. This tree is also called 'Flame of the Forest' and Bastard Teak. It grows throughout Haryana, rest of the Indian subcontinent, especially in Indo-Gangetic plains, from 150 m to 1000 m. It is quite happy in black cotton soil, and therefore quite common from Sri Lanka north-wards i.e. the Indian Peninsula, especially the Deccan Plateau. The bole of Dhak is twisted and gnarled and the branching too follows no particular pattern. It is slow growing and attains a height of about 5 to 8 m and diameter of about 20 to 40 cm when mature at the age of about 50 years or so. The bark of Dhak is fibrous and bluish gray to light brown in color. It exudes a kind of red juice when injured. That dries into a very useful gum. The leaves of Dhak are compound. Each has three leaflets. The texture of the leaflets is fairly tough. These are coriascious with the surface glabrescent above and hairy silken beneath. The size varies from 15 cm to 20 cm by 10 cm x 15 cm. The shape is obliquely ovate and broadly elliptic. The leaves fall off by December and reappear during spring. When the tree is leafless, it bears flaming orange to red-colored flowers.