Boichi or Madagascar plum, Flacourtia indica

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Boichi or Madagascar plum (Flacourtia indica, family: Flacourtiaceae) is a spiny shrub with numerous branches, attaining a height of 2-3 m. Bark is grey and rough. Young leaves and shoots are reddish. There are numerous long and sharp spines all over the body of this leafy shrub. It is found in village thickets, in deep forest and the edge of water bodies in Bangladesh. Globally it is found in many Asian countries, tropical Africa and Madagascar.  

Other names: Baichha, Tamabot, Bunj, Dungkhoir, Beuchi, Kanta-bohuri, Bongkui-kanta, Bon-khoi.


The size and shape of leaves vary from ovate to lanceolate or almost heart-shaped. Those are usually 3-6 cm long, having numerous tiny nerves through the blade, deeply dented, blunt or slightly acute at the end, petioled, alternate. 

Flowers are tiny, yellowish of greenish. They appear from the node of leaves. Female and male flowers are in different plants. Flowering occurs in the end of winter. 


Fruits are round, 2-2.5 cm wide, Immature fruits are pink or red with shiny skin. When ripe, these turn dark purple. Seeds 4-10. The fruits ripen in summer. These are edible and dellicious too. The spiny shrub is propagated by seeds and cuttings. 


Fruits are very popular among the village children. Smart sellers in the market make garlands with the tiny red and blackish fruits. Children wear them around their necks and they gladly press and eat them. By the by, it can reach a height of 10 meters if it is favored. Ripe fruits are rich in phosphorus and calcium. This is why these are used to treat gingivitis and jaundice.

Comments

  1. Australian Seed BankJuly 10, 2021 at 12:02 AM

    You've shared some excellent material. I'm grateful for this post because it contains a lot of useful information. Thank you for sharing this piece of writing. ak47 auto seeds

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zinia NasrinFebruary 1, 2023 at 11:27 PM

    খুব সুন্দর লেখা আর ছবি।

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ricardo MendezOctober 1, 2023 at 1:49 PM

    Thank you for the information. Any thoughts as to the size of the fruit? We planted a tree three years ago and it's doing very well, quickly growing to about 5 meters and sprouting fruit everywhere. Our only issues are that the fruit is small (10-15 mm) and that, even though there are over a thousand of them, they rarely seem to ripen. The tree has been loaded for months but the fruit remains green. On a weekly basis we (and the birds) harvest maybe a dozen red/purple fruit and the rest seem to stay green perennially. Here in Puerto Rico the weather is always warm and winter is never an issue. Any thoughts would be very welcome. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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