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Pleasant pinks

The beautiful blooms and the many uses of Gliricidia make the tree popular among Nature enthusiasts

EXOTIC SPECIES Gliricidia

The Madre tree, native to South America, is a widely introduced tree in the tropics and is familiar in the botanical lexis as Gliricidia sepium, belonging to the pea family, Fabaceae. One of the most beautiful and exotic trees in Chennai, Gliricidia produces clustered racemes of gracious pink flowers tinged with white and yellow that are borne at the distal end of the branches in the flowering season that corresponds to the dry months of February, March and April. These pastel-hued blossoms that cover the leafless canopy fade to faint purple and white before they fall. It is often easy to identify the foliage of the tree by its greyish tinge on the ventral side of the leaves that flip-flop when there is a gentle breeze. The succulent, young, green pods that turn woody on maturity contain about 3-10 seeds.

Large, solitary carpenter bees pollinate the flowers as many potential pollinators have trouble accessing them due to the rigidity of the keel petals. The flowers are not only an excellent source of forage for bees but are also cooked and eaten by the Filipinos and the Central Americans.

The name Gliricidia is adapted from the Greek words glis meaning dormouse and caedo to kill, since the seeds and the bark of this plant are used to poison rats in Columbia. Though the tree is poisonous to rats and other rodents, it is not toxic to cattle. In Latin America and in the Philippines, the leaves are ground to a paste and applied on cattle infested with ectoparasites to treat fly infections.

In Guatemala, it is commonly referred to as Madre Cacao to describe its use as a cocoa shade. In the tropics too, it is widely planted as a shade tree for cocoa, coffee, tea and vanilla. Although, it has been used for shade plantation crops since ancient times, recently these trees are being integrated into farming practices for firewood, hedges, forage, green manure and soil stabilisation. Gliricidia also helps in live-fencing, i.e., the tree is planted along the side of fields as fence posts. The nitrogen-rich leaves are lopped for manure.

Gliricidia is also a folk remedy for alopecia, boils, cough, debility, prickly heat, skin sore and urinary infection.

In Indonesia, the tree is planted as a firebreak.

The timber is said to finish smoothly and can be used for making furniture and agricultural implements. The durable wood is used for fuel and for house posts and fences.

RIDLING WALLER & PAULINE DEBORAH

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