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Blooming beauties
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"There are many silent plant marvels that continue to show their significance, but all in vain."
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EACH NEW day dawns and sheds myriad rays of light on different people. Seldom in the melee of a busy schedule do we pay cognizance to either creation or evolution. There is absolutely no time to observe and appreciate nature.
Desmond Morris wrote `Man Watching'. It not only provides binoculars in our mind to appreciate the richness of behavioural diversity but also provides a platform to debate on the right to have behavioural diversity for better interpersonal relationship.
Painting, poetry and music come to man with a price tag. But nature's bounty is available free of cost. `Plant watching' as Malcolm B. Wilkins puts it, is a fascinating hobby that one could develop for not only a pleasant and soothing experience but also for gaining better knowledge about the world we live in.
In yesteryears, people benefited from plants using them as remedies for various disorders and diseases. Yet, occasionally we write and read about plants. When the Kurinji blooms it makes headlines and when the Tolipod tree flowers it gets a lens view. But there are many silent plant marvels that continue to show their significance, but all in vain.
In temperate countries autumn and spring are welcome, since they give a riot of colours to the vegetation next to the sidewalk. But without the well-demarked four seasons, our tropical vegetation shows variations that are seldom observed.
This write-up is a special invitation to Maduraites to observe one such tree through the year and appreciate a silent spectacular transformation. Holoptelea integrifolia (Roxb.) Planchon is a tree that grows to 15 to 25 M with a girth up to two-three feet. It remains as an elegant tree with conspicuous and thick olive green foliage through the year. But it quickly sheds its leaves in early part of February. And by the middle of the month, one can see small earstud-like projections from the otherwise sticky branches (Fig 1). The marvellous endeavour of flowering takes just two weeks.
If any one taps the branch, pollen would fly off giving an appearance of smoke. Hence it is called `Aavi Maram'. The pollination and fruit development would be over within a week's time. Now the tree looks an altogether different one with parrot green fruits (Fig.2) that are flat with a membranous wing, measuring up to an inch in diameter. These types of fruits are called `Samara'.
The distribution at the tip of the branch and the density render a different pattern to the tree (Fig.3). In this picture, soobabul, Lucaena leucocephala (Lam) de Wit, stands to the right of Holoptelea. This has already flowered and borne fruit. The pods of this tree are brown and the seeds are used to make bean bags. The contrasting green hue from the foliage and then from the fruits can well be compared with the neighbouring trees to appreciate it.
Within a couple of weeks the seeds that are produced in millions turn brown (Fig.4) and are shed off as the foliage begin to reappear (Fig.5). Foliage becomes denser (Fig.6) and stays for the rest of the year. This enables the tree to manufacture food to perform the visual marvel the following summer.
Summer indicator
It derives the name `summer indicator' because of the urgency with which it accomplishes all events with the onset of summer. Records have it that the barks are used to cure rheumatism and swelling. The paste of the bark could cure leucoderma. People eat the seeds that have a droplet of oil in each one of them. One of my friends tells me that they call it `Biscuit Kai'(Fig.7).
The tree is basically a hill dweller growing in the Western Ghats. But we do have a few trees in Madurai. People staying west of the railway station can take the road to the university and see the tree on the right. It stands tall in front of St. Miguel Thendral De La Salle Brothers campus. The central Maduraiites could visit American College and find a small tree next to the Daniel Poor memorial library. Northern and eastern Maduriites can spot an elegant tree on the left side opposite the bus stop before the cross road from YWCA as one travels north on the New Natham road behind Fortune Pandiyan Hotel. Best wishes to all plant watchers.
(The author can be contacted at anujbar@rediffmail.com)
A.D. BARNABAS
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