Blue Blessings From The Sky

As the sun starts to warm the region lucky residents of the city get to witness a Jacaranda tree in blossom! The trees are easily recognised by their breathtaking floral display of vivid lilac-blue clusters of trumpet shaped flowers. These trees thrive well in sunny areas and thus serve as an ideal ornamental tree in large to smaller sized gardens. They grow roughly 10m high and are five to eight m wide. Jacaranda is often chosen to serve as a perfect summer centrepiece for gardens, as its erupts in a blaze of brilliant colour when all of the spring blossom trees have long been gone. Its floral displays are said to be even better after a dry year!

Amazing surprise

Due to the bright lilac-blue floral shows that appear in unison, Jacarandas' blooms have locally been associated with the Garden City of Bangalore. However, Brazil and other parts of tropical and sub-tropical South America are its place of origin. An Argentinean student of mine told me that they call this tree Hakharanda.

If you have a Jacaranda tree in your neighbourhood, you could be in for a surprise any day now. A couple of days ago, in my neighbourhood a tree that appeared dry and withered all through winter bloomed and glowed in its magnificence overnight. When I drove around the city last weekend I was interested to learn that the tree, as in Bangalore, appears to have bloomed in unison! It is also delightful when the flowers fall to the earth carpeting the ground in a mass of colour.

There's a popular belief that if one of the trumpet blossoms from the Jacaranda fall on your head you will be favoured by fortune. A horticulturist informs me that the tree generally puts on its floral shows twice every year. The first blooms appear when its branches are bare and the second flush is in summer when the lush green leaves emerge. So, look up and don't miss the opportunity to receive nature's blessings for a fortune through the Jacaranda blossom!

Did you know? The administrative capital of South Africa Pretoria, noted for its 70,000 plus flowering Jacaranda trees is often referred to as The Jacaranda City.

Fact file:

Blue Jacaranda: Jacaranda mimosifolia

Family: Bignoniaceae

Origin: Brazil, Bolivia, North western Argentina.
Growth habits: Deciduous tree; twice-pinnately compound leaves, up to 45 cm long.
Propagation: Easily by cuttings, or seeds
Blooming habits: Tubular, lavender blue, flowers, five cm long, in 20-30 cm long clusters.
Fruiting habits: Flattened two inch capsules, containing winged seeds.

This Article of mine appeared on April 28, 2006 in "The Young World" a magazine of The Hindu Newspaper

You could read that following the link below: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-youngworld/blue-blessings-from-the-sky/article3227474.ece

Springtime Is Here And It’s Raining Flowers

A tree that adorns all along most of the city roads, which these days are standing fresh and cool with puffy pink flowers, is the Rain Tree (Albizia saman or Samanea saman). "Thoongumoonji Maram" as it is locally known, folds its leaves together during cloudy weather and in darkness. The tree is an ideal choice for those seeking a good shade. It stands tall growing up to 24 m in height and spreads its branches up to 30 m. These trees live long for almost 80–100 years.

The fresh attractive globose clusters of flowers with showy crimson stamens that are much longer than the petals catches everyone's eyes during all of spring and summer months. A forester friend of mine Mr. Ramasubramaniam, tells me that the tree fixes the atmospheric nitrogen in its root nodules and it helps to enrich the soil. He added an interesting note that the tree is commonly referred to in Africa as the monkey-pod tree because the black curved pods of the tree are sweet pulp and attracts large number of monkeys towards it. This tree is native to the America—from south Mexico to Peru and Brazil.

Today, the Indian Forest Department encourages the growth of this tree along streets, roads, in parks and as a windbreak between plantation crops like tea, coffee, etc. It has also long been grown for nitrogen enrichment of soils in pastures and as a shade-tree with its attractive flowers in parks. It is also a home for many wild animals—various reptiles, birds, and small mammals which use the tree branches and cavities for nesting and dens. The Rain tree is a primary food source for the lac insect (Laccifer lacca), the source of shellac.

In the Isles of the West Indies, where the World cup is being hosted, the fruit pulp is used to make a beverage similar to tamarindo (made from tamarind pulp) and the seeds are chewed as medicine for sore throat.