Theobroma (ThursdayTreeLove)

Chocolate or cocoa is omnipresent in our lives. We use to as a gift or a treat or a comfort food or to reward ourselves or on a cheat day of a diet!

It is made from the fruit of the Theobroma cacao trees. Though an introduced speices in India it is widely cultivated in the state of Kerala.

Here are its flowers. You can read the entire post here.

Stopping in my tracks (ThursdayTreeLove)

How many times have you stopped or detoured just to see a tree? It often happens to me and my family are now used to my (apparently) random calls to stop the vehicle.

One such tree (more like a large shrub) caught my attention and stopped me in my tracks.

🙂

This was on the curvy winding roads of Munnar. The tree was the Spiky Powder Puff

aka Calliandra calothyrsus of the Mimosaceae family.

Here it is.

I am joining Parul in her ThursdayTreeLove bloghop.

Click here to read more.

Cousins (ThursdayTreeLove)

 I had a different tree in mind for todays post but I just read Parul’s TTL 132 post and decided to share some plants from my home balcony garden. 

To be more specific, three plants that are so called ‘cousins’. 

They belong to the same Genus of Malpighia but the specific epithet is different. Hence they are different species. I am growing them to be Bonsai and they do grow as trees in Nature. 

They all belong to the family Malpighiaceae and you can see the distinct flower similarity. The frilly flowers are very pretty but not fragrant. The three plants I am sharing all have simple opposite leaves. 

Click here to read detailed post.

Barbados Cherry or Malpighia glabra flowers.
Flowers of the Frooti.
Flowers of the Malpighia coccigera or Hawthorn

I am joining Parul in her ThursdayTreeLove blog hop.

In case you face difficulties in comments, please click here to share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you. Thank you!!

Zoological Survey of India


I am participating in the April AtoZ Blogging challenge and my theme is Plants featured on Indian Stamps. This is my eight attempt at the AtoZ. 

My theme is inspired by an online talk by Daniel L Nikrent of Cornell University, USA held by Maharashtra Vriksha Samvardhini about Parasitic Flowering Plants featured on Stamps

I am not a stamp collector nor a fan of stamps. Hence almost all my posts are purely based on research on the internet. I have tried to cross check the info before posting here. Please do share correct info and links to the same in case of discrepancy. 

India Post has a very strong network reaching deep deep into the interiors of the country and I depended on it for news from home when we were posted in far away places.  In this age of smartphones, Internet, how many of us really write letters – snail mail as they are now called? Despite this , I find that new stamps are being issued and we have stamps on diverse topics including Armed Forces, Films, Personalities, Wildlife, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Food and so on.. It is amazing!

The Zoological Survey of India was set up in 1916 and India Post issued a commemorative stamp to celebrate its centenary year. With a denomination of 25 INR, it depicts a dense forest and wildlife therein. It may not strictly match my theme, but then, today is the last post, and Z is a difficult alphabet … I am sure you will love this stamp and accept my choice! 🙂

Post of India, GODL-India https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf, via Wikimedia Commons

In the same vein, here is a 1990- issued stamp of denomination 2 INR about the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It shows blades of Wheat. Wheat is an important crop in the country and our diet. Wheat is Triticum aestivum of the Poaceae family.

Post of India, GODL-India https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf, via Wikimedia Commons

In 2002, on the occasion of the “8th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, New Delhi: Mangroves” four stamps with images of four different Magrove species were issued. And I do find a couple of Z there!


😉

Jokes apart, I thought it is important to include Mangroves considering the threats they currently face. The four species are Brugeria gymnorrhiza, Sonneratia alba, Nypa fruiticans and Rhizophora mucronata.  

Brugueria gymnorhiza
Rhizophora mucronata

The India Postage Stamps website  has a complete catalogue of stamps. Please click the link to see many many wonderful stamps.

Colnect is a comprehensive portal for Stamp collectors. It gives detailed information about every listed stamp.  Click here for detailed info about Stamps – what is a stamp, types, formats, water marks, perforations and much more.  

This is the last post of the 2022 April AtoZ. Its been great having you here. Thank you one and all for your support and encouragement!
I will post details in the Reflections post in a couple of days. 
Do keep visiting this space. It will be wonderful to hear your thoughts.
Stay Happy! Stay Healthy! 

Yellow?


I am participating in the April AtoZ Blogging challenge and my theme is Plants featured on Indian Stamps. This is my eight attempt at the AtoZ. 

My theme is inspired by an online talk by Daniel L Nikrent of Cornell University, USA held by Maharashtra Vriksha Samvardhini about Parasitic Flowering Plants featured on Stamps

I am not a stamp collector nor a fan of stamps. Hence almost all my posts are purely based on research on the internet. I have tried to cross check the info before posting here. Please do share correct info and links to the same in case of discrepancy. 

India Post has a very strong network reaching deep deep into the interiors of the country and I depended on it for news from home when we were posted in far away places.  In this age of smartphones, Internet, how many of us really write letters – snail mail as they are now called? Despite this , I find that new stamps are being issued and we have stamps on diverse topics including Armed Forces, Films, Personalities, Wildlife, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Food and so on.. It is amazing!

Y has proved to be the most difficult and I am taking the liberty of diverging awaY from plants with names starting with Y. whY? you maY well ask?

Obvious reason is that I was unable to find a stamp with a Y name plant. 

Another is that, I am using the above to showcase one of 11 commemorative stamps 2017-issued by India Post on Ramayan. 

One of the stamps shows Hanuman talking to Sita under a tree. This is said to be a grove of Saraca asoca trees. Its flowers range are Yellow-orange and are extremely beautiful. Here is a flower image from mY collection.

Here is the stamp of denomination 5 INR.

Post of India, GODL-India https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf, via Wikimedia Commons

Here is another stamp that shows a beautiful tree on Roadside. It could be a tree with  Yellow flowers or Yellow foliage. The stamp is part of Beautiful India series of denomination 15 INR. 

Post of India, GODL-India https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf, via Wikimedia Commons

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it!

The India Postage Stamps website  has a complete catalogue of stamps. Please click the link to see many many wonderful stamps.

Colnect is a comprehensive portal for Stamp collectors. It gives detailed information about every listed stamp.  Click here for detailed info about Stamps – what is a stamp, types, formats, water marks, perforations and much more.  

You can catch up with my previous posts here. We meet tomorrow for yet another beautiful plant and its stamp!