About Blinding Tree
Excoecaria agallocha, a mangrove species, belongs to the genus Excoecaria of the family Euphorbiaceae. The species has many common names, including blind-your-eye mangrove, blinding tree, buta buta tree, milky mangrove, poisonfish tree, and river poison tree. Most of the names refer to its toxic properties or its propensity to cause blindness when its latex comes into contact with the eyes. This plant grows in saline or brackish water in tropical mangrove forests, in a distribution bounded to the west by India, to the north by Bangladesh, to the south by Australia. Within Australia, it thrives from northern New South Wales along the northern coastline around to Western Australia. It can also be found along the coastlines of South China.
Description adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Excoecaria agallocha
- Genus
- Excoecaria
- Family
- EUPHORBIACEAE
- Habit
- Tree
- Habitat
- Banks of backwaters and mangrove forests
- Native to
- India to Pacific Islands
- Distribution
- India, Sri Lanka to Formosa, Malaysia, Pacific Islands, Australia, Ryu Kyu Islands
- Flowering & fruiting
- February-June
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (LC)
Local Names
- Hindi
- Gangiva, Tejbala, গেওয়া
- Bengali
- gewa, গেওয়া
- Tamil
- தில்லை tillai, அகதி akati, ஆக்கொல்லி akkolli
- Kannada
- hara, haro, haaro gida
- Malayalam
- കോമട്ടി koomatti, കടപ്പാല
- Marathi
- गेवा geva
Euphorbiaceae
Spurge/Euphorbia family
Blinding Tree belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the EUPHORBIACEAE family →Snap it. Know it.
Point your camera at blinding tree or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.