Phalsa, Grewia subinaequalis, is a large, scraggly shrub or small deciduous, sub-tropical fruit bearing tree, up to 5meters tall widely cultivated for its fruit. It has long, slim, drooping branches and the young branchlets are thickly coated with hairs. Phalsa is indigenous to India and Southeast Asia. It grows well up to an altitude of 900 meters. It can stand light frosts which cause only dropping of leaves.

Grewia subinaequalis leaves are alternate, widely spaced, broadly heart-shaped or ovate, pointed at the peak, oblique at the base, up to 20 cm long and15cm wide, coarsely serrated and with a whitish blush on the under-surface. Flowers are small, orange and yellow or red and yellow, borne in dense cymes in the leaf axils. Flowers are formed only on the current year's shoots.

Phalsa fruit is round, up to 2.5 cm in diameter, red or purple in color produced in great numbers of peduncles in open branched clusters. The skin of the fruit turns from green to purplish-red and eventually dark-purple or nearly black and is soft and tender. Fruit matures in 7 to 8 weeks.

The soft, fibrous flesh of the fruit is greenish-white stained with purplish-red near the skin and becoming perfused with this color as it reaches over ripeness. The flavor is pleasantly acid, somewhat similar to grapes. Large fruits have 2 hard, buff-colored seeds 5mm wide. Small fruits are single-seeded. The fruits are consumed fresh as dessert, made into syrup, and extensively used in the industry of soft drinks.

Summer is the fruiting season. Only a few fruits in a bundle mature at any one time, so constant harvesting is essential. The fruits keep poorly and must be marketed inside 48 hours.

Phalsa grows in most soils sand, clay or limestone but, rich loam improves fruit production, as will do irrigation during the fruiting season and in dry periods, even though the tree is drought-tolerant. Generally, it is grown in marginal land

Plant propagation is by seed and germination takes place in about 15-20 days. The tall-growing wild Grewia subinaequalis bear acid fruits. The cultivated dwarf, shrubby type, with a blend of sweet-and-acid produces the best fruits. Grewia subinaequalis is a member of the familyTiliaceae the genous Grewia.

Mucilaginous juice extracted from the bark is used traditionally to the clarification of cane syrup (to prepare for the "gur" traditional brown Indian sugar).

Phalsa, Grewia subinaequalis

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The key to successful fruit and nut production is the provision of a beneficial environment for the trees that bear them.