CSIR-NEERI Biodiversity Portal

BER

Ziziphus maurtiana L.

Botanical name	: Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.
Synonym	: Ziziphus jujube
Vernacular name	: Bor / Indian jujube
Family	: Rhamnaceae
About the Tree	: A spiny, fast growing evergreen middle sized tree. In harsh environmental conditions, it grows as a shrub. Crown is round, spreading and irregular. The species is believed to have originated in Indo-Malaysian region of South-East Asia. The Ber thrives in the drier parts of the country. It is also found in Afghanistan, Ceylon, China, Australia and Africa. It has been cultivated for its fruits in India.
Height	: 15 m
Bark	: Bark is grey or dull black, irregularly fissured.
Leaf	: Leaves are single, alternate, and ovate to oblong-elliptic in shape, entire or finely toothed. On the upper side leaves are smooth, glossy and dark green. Leaf blade is also characterized by the presence of three conspicuous longitudinal parallel veins
Flower	: Inflorescence is axillary with 7 to 20 flowers. Flowers are small, greenish-yellow in colour, 4-6mm wide, with five-refluxed petals and a calyx with five-deltoid lobes, which are hairy outside.
Fruits	: Fruit is round, oval or oblong in shape, with smooth or rough skin, up to 3 cm long, which is light green to yellow in unripe fruits. Ripe fruits are reddish or red-brown or blackish in colour with spongy, musky flesh. Each fruit contains a single, hard, oval shaped, rough stone, which contains two brown seeds.
Season	: Leaves are renewed fairly quickly after fall in march April or early in may .flowers appear in September-October sometimes twice a year with an early flush between April and June fruit ripen sometime between mid December and march.
Medicinal Properties Peculiar Character	: Root, bark and fruit are used in folk medicine to treat a wide range of complaints mostly to do with the digestive tract. : It is highly tolerant to heat and drought and moderately tolerant to soil salinity. Propagation is mainly by seeds.