A very common tree with a wide distribution, growing on any kind of soil from rich loam to the driest and most barren sand or clay. It is commonest on wastes swept bare and scoured by rain or in little stony gullies. The form varies with the locality, tall, slender trees growing on good soils and wide-spreading, many stemmed shrubs of great size, or small stunted trees on poor soils. The full-grown tree is some 30 feet high, branching from ground level and forming a hemispherical growth with foliage to the ground.
The Bark of young trees is black, smooth and covered with lenticels that are rust-coloured on the smaller branches. That of old trees is dull black and rough with large heavy scales several inches long, that give the stem a shaggy appearance when they are falling. The slash is a yellow ochre colour.
The Wood is pale red, darkening to a light mahogany brown after exposure. The sapwood is white. In transverse section the rings are ill-defined, though the hard and soft tissue is well marked and the colour is much deeper in this section. The pores are numerous in long chains and festoons; the rays, invisible to the unaided eye, are fine and nearly straight. The wood is very hard and heavy and difficult to saw and plane, the finished surface taking a bright polish. Weight 70 lbs. a cubic foot.
The Leaves are some 12 inches long, pinnate with 6-9 pairs of leaflets opposite or nearly opposite. These are varied in shape, the basal pair almost as broad as long and the top pair almost twice as long as broad, with graduations between, 1½-2 inches long and 1-1¼ inches wide. They are bluish-green with a brilliant sheen, paler beneath with the mid-rib prominent. Young leaves are often purplish. The petioles are ¼ inch long.
The Flowers are in 12-18 inches long, pendulous racemes, in masses with the appearance of Laburnum, from February to May. Each flower is 1½-2 inches across on a 1½-2 inch stalk, and has 5 small, irregular sized pointed sepals with a darker green central line, 5 large yellow petals, varying in shape, and 10 stamens, 3 long and large-anthered, 4 shorter and large-anthered, and 3 small and round-anthered. The pistil is large, smooth and green. The petals enlarge and pale after the stamens have fallen from the fertilised flower. There is no scent.
The Fruits are long, black pods, up to 2 feet in length and a little over ½ inch broad, cylindrical, straight or slightly curved, more or less jointed, but never deeply, and divided across the length of the pod by fine, transparent, brittle membranes forming cells up to a hundred in number containing oval, shiny, light brown, hard, ½ inch long seeds, one in each cell, rattling loose in the pod. The pods fall entire or break across and rot on the ground. They are mostly riddled with holes by a small grub. The dry, yellowish pulp has an unpleasant smell.
Uses.—The yellow, mealy pulp is used in the preparation of a laxative.
CELTIS INTEGRIFOLIA Lam.—Zuwo, Dukki. ULMACEAE.