Trees seen at Lalbagh and in other parts of India in the last month

Have recently felt motivated to learn more about trees. Picked up the book 'Celebration of Indian Trees' a few months back at the Bangalore book fair (http://www.marg-art.org/SP-trees.html) and have also been looking at http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/tree.html. Both are great resources. 'Celebration of Indian Trees' has been written by Ashok Kothari (I must admit I was ignorant about him and BNHS), though serendipitiously, within a few weeks of purchasing this book, I read about Bill Aitken's encounter with Ashok Kothari in the Valley of Flowers, where Ashok was unabashedly adoring the flora out there.

Decided to make a trip with Malini to Lalbagh today, armed with the book, a pair of cheap binoculars intending to learn about a few trees. Stumbled upon a Monkey Puzzle tree (I had heard about it earlier only because we had a passage on that in ASSET- a test paper my company develops), which I thought was to be seen only in South America. Read more about this very very old and interesting tree at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_araucana.

Also saw the mandara tree with its purple flowers (bauhinia purpurea). Has also seen this tree a few weeks back at the Aurobindo ashram in Delhi, as well as in the Lodi Gardens. At both these places, we saw parrots eating parts of the flower or carrying the flowers away in their beaks.

Apart from a few trees we could not identify in spite of the help from the book, saw-

-the familiar peepal tree
-Ficus Benjamina- could spot its light pink berries high up in the tree- the 'avenue' in lalbagh that leads to the glasshouse is actually lined with this tree (apparently called the java tree commonly)
-a cluster of bael trees, and learnt a lot about the bael tree from the book- apparently it's a very holy tree, especially connected to Shiva- the book has some very interesting facts about the tree. Learnt that the bael (or bilva) tree along with 4 other trees comprises the Panchvati.... googling on Panchvati- I found this at a website about a "Panchvati Yoga Kendra'

The conception of Panchavati is based on the description of Panchavati in Ramayana. The five trees Ala, Ashwattha, Ashoka, Amalaka and Bilva have been planted along the perimeter of the plot. In Lalithavana the Bilva, Mandara, Champaka, Kadamba and Punnaga trees have been planted concentrically. These arrangements are believed to be beneficial to the human mind. In particular, Ala and Ashwattha trees secrete a chemical called serotonin, which has a calming/soothing effect on human mind.


It is really exciting to see trees carefully and learn about them, hoping to see many more in the coming months consciously.