

A khatta-meetha take on life around me through my presbiopic eyes!
Our guide very apologetically said, “This is the Mad Tree”. I was stunned. In whatever little bit I have read about trees and their names, I had never come across this one..
It was a wonderful tree, with a graceful buttress and showed nothing that would have earned it this title of being ‘Mad’.
In any tree, all leaves have the same shape but in this case, no two leaves are identical. This is said have earned it this name. It grows in the Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose Botanical Garden in Kolkata and is the Buddha’s Coconut or Pterygota alata .
Its an evergreen species native to India and grows to be very tall. A beautiful stately tree.
I am joining Parul in her ThursdayTreeLove blog hop. Head over to see some wonderful trees from around the world.
Better still, join in!
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It stands on thousands of supporting roots
This video will give take you straight to this great tree..
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Have you seen this beautiful tree? Do you know of any other large spread Banyan?
I am joining Parul’s #ThursdayTreeLove41 blog hop. Do head over to see some amazing trees from around the world!
This beautiful tree with glorious fragrant flowers growing out of its main trunk goes by the unlikely common name “Cannon Ball Tree”. This is due to its large round fruit resembling cannon balls. Its botanical name is Couroupita guianensis and the species has been introduced in India. The tree belongs to the Lecythidaceae family.
The flowers are uniquely shaped almost like a Shivalinga. Hence the tree also goes by the common name Kailaspati. When plucked, the highly fragrant pretty flower stays fresh in a bowl of water for a day.
In sharp contrast, the fruit is filled with a foul smelling substance. If you look closely, some fruit are visible and seem to be strung on the trunk. If one of them falls on someone’s head, it can cause an injury!
Kailaspati is native to the Amazon rainforest but seems to be happy in India considering its gregarious flowering and fruiting! It grows to be quite tall and is an imposing sight!
I am joining Parul‘s #ThursdayTreeLove blog hop. Do head over to see some wonderful trees from around the world!