Ziziphus nummularia

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Ziziphus nummularia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Ziziphus
Species:	Z. nummularia
Binomial name
Ziziphus nummularia (Burm.f.) Wight & Arn.
Synonyms[1]
Ziziphus rotundifolia

Ziziphus nummularia is a species of Ziziphus native to the Thar Desert of western India and southeastern Pakistan and south Iran.

Ziziphus nummularia is a shrub up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) or more high, branching to form a thicket. The leaves are rounded like those of Ziziphus jujuba but differ from these in having a pubescence on the adaxial surface. The plant is commonly found in agricultural fields. This species is native to parts of the Persian Gulf, especially Qatar, where it occurs in natural depressions.

Uses[]

Food[]

The fruit is either eaten fresh, pickled, dried or made into confectionery. The juice can be made into a refreshing drink. In India, the fruit, when fully ripe and less than one centimeter in diameter, is gathered in the beginning of the winter months, dried, ground, and sieved. The powder formed is eaten either alone, or mixed with Gur (a sugar condiment) or Bajra (millet) flour. In Arabia, this fruit is known as “Kenar” and often eaten directly like an apple, especially among traditional households.^{[citation needed]}

Fodder[]

The leaves of Z. nummularia provide excellent fodder for livestock. In India, the average total yield of forage was about 1000 kg ha-1. The leaves are collected dried and stored.

Fuel[]

It is a source of high calorific value (4400 kcal/kg) fuel and charcoal Timber: The heartwood is yellow to dark brown, hard, 738 kg/m3 and it is used in farm implements and for house construction.

Medicine[]

Dried fruit used medicinally as astringent in bilious affliction in India. The leaves are used to treat scabies and other skin diseases. Poison: The fruits are greedily eaten by gerbils and rats and are used as baits for poisoning these rodents.

Intercropping[]

Ziziphus nummularia shrubs are often intercropped with millet, legumes and oil seeds

Erosion control[]

The shrubs have been shown to effectively check wind erosion, help in deposition of soil, and bring about a change in the microhabitat, causing favourable conditions for the appearance of successional species such asperennial grasses

Boundary or barrier or support[]

In India, it is commonly erected as ‘brush-wood barriers’ (micro-windbreaks) together with Crotalaria burhia.

Reclamation[]

It has proved successful in sand dune stabilization in India.

Tree management[]

It produces copious coppice shoots and roots suckers forming dense thorny thickets often collecting moulds of leaves and dust.

Germplasm management[]

Seed storage behaviour is orthodox. There are 1800-2000 seeds/Kg

Pests and diseases[]

This species is a host of larvae of butterfly Tarucus balkanica Freyer in Africa, Balkans, Iran, Asia Minor, Lebanon and Mauritania.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

Medias[]

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