Terminalia Linn., Mant. 1:21. 1767. Benth. & Hook.f., Gen.Pl. 1:685.1865; Clarke in Hook.f., Fl.Brit.Ind. 2:443. 1879: Cooke, Fl.Bomb.Pres. 1:507.1958 (reprinted); Parker, For. Fl.Punj.Haz.& Delhi 238. 1956 (reprinted).
Trees, often large. Leaves alternate or subopposite coriaceous, often crowded towards the end of branchlets, exstipulate, crenulate, usually with glands near the base of midrib or petiole. Inflorescence a spike, sometimes panicled. Flowers small, greenish or white, bisexual, but the upper flowers on the racemes often male, bract narrow, linear, deciduous. Calyx 5 lobed, campanulate, lobes triangular, deciduous. Hypanthium ovoid or cylindrical. Petals absent. Stamens 10, episepalous, densly hairy, filaments subulate or filiform, exserted, anthers small, lobes scarcely connected. Disc intrastaminal. Ovary unilocular, ovules 2-3, style long. simple. Fruit ovoid, drupaceous, 2-5 winged or angular.
A genus with about 135 species, distributed throughout the tropics of the world, principally in South Asia, represented by 4 or 5 species in Pakistan.
