This feature on the trees of Chennai is based on the book Trees and Tree Tales by Prof KN Rao, a renowned botanist, published by Oxygen Books, Chennai. It speaks of the biodiversity of the city in the form of trees that have survived continuous human efforts to decimate them. Though the city has more of the showy, colourfully flowered exotic trees than the less ornamental native trees, the latter yield a variety of utilitarian products. Examples abound of the multipurpose coconut, neem, tamarind and palmyrah, all valuable in medicine, food, construction and other areas of human use. Follows a sample of some of the trees common to Chennai, with brief descriptions.
Neem tree
The neem tree Azadirachta indica is found in most compounds of Chennai homes. According to Brihat Samhita, neem is an ‘indicator plant’ for the presence of underground water. Obviously, artificial watering is unnecessary. The rains meet its water requirements.
The neem has a special place in the hearts of Chennaivasis because it flowers just before the Tamil New Year. The flowers form part of the New Year pachadi lending it a bitter taste and a philosophical message. The neem flower, though bitter to taste, is salutary in effect because it is vermifugal and kills worms in the intestines.
Coconut tree
Stand anywhere in Chennai, and look around, you are sure to see coconut trees. Such is the visibility of coconut in Chennai and, indeed, all along the coastal belt of the country.
Other palm trees commonly seen in Chennai are:
Fish tail palm (Caryota urens)
Royal palm (Oreodoxa regia)
Palmyrah palm (Borassus flabellifer)
The last of these is commonly seen on the outskirts of the city but is not very common in the city itself.
The legumonosae is a family of flowering plants that exhibits a great diversity of habit and floral organisation. The Gliricidia is a medium-sized tree and its leaves make excellent rich green manure. ‘Gliricidia’ means ‘rat-destroying’ and the seeds seem to possess this power.
This is a tree commonly seen in all parts of Chennai, but you are likely to notice it only when it is in flower. By far the most gorgeous of the papilionaceous trees seen in Chennai is the coral tree, botanically christened Erythrina indica.
Agati Maram, botanically known as Sesbania grandiflora, was till a few years ago, a very commonly grown tree in the backyards of many a Chennai home.
Delonix regia is a native of Madagascar. It reached India via Mauritius. The tree is found everywhere in Chennai. Gulmohur, a close relative of Delonix (which, incidentally, is called by this generic name by some authors), is the small-sized Caesalpinia pulcherrima often seen in the compounds of many houses in Chennai.
Gulmohur
Ringworm cassia is seen in many home gardens in Chennai. The tamarind tree – Tamarindus indica – is an evergreen tree of great economic importance. It yields puli, an ingredient of the most famous culinary item of South India – sambar. It lives for well over a hundred years and is therefore a favourite of the Roads & Buildings wing of the Public Works Department.
Tamarind tree
The rain tree, which is easily the most common avenue tree in Chennai, is botanically called Samanea saman. Albizzia lebbeck, the Siris tree mentioned earlier, is a tall tree, reaching up to 15m in height.
Callophyllum inophyllum, called Punnai in Tamil, Punnaga in Sanskrit and the Alexandrian laurel in English, is a much-venerated tree as it is considered the favourite of Lord Krishna.
It is a small-sized tree often grown in many a home garden in Chennai.
A fast-growing tree, called Kattumalli in Tamil, the cork tree with the botanical name of Millingtonia hortensis, gets its name from its fissured bark, which is used as an inferior substitute for cork.
Unfortunately, the peepul is a calciphile (a plant that grows in lime-rich conditions) and often seen growing on old walls, inviting the punishment of being uprooted. The Senate House of Madras University has been a victim of this tree and past negligence is now costing a tidy sum to restore that beautiful heritage building
Peepul tree
Ala maram in Tamil, the scientific name of the banyan is Ficus benghalensis. For a Chennaite, the banyan tree in the gardens of the Theosophical Society at Adyar is a landmark. Sometime in the 1980s, it fell victim to a cloudburst and all efforts at revitalising its main trunk proved futile.
Banyan tree
Called Pavazhamalligai in Tamil, Parijatam in Sanskrit and Telugu and Coral jasmine in English, it has a tell-tale botanical name—Nyctanthes arbortristis: ‘Nyctanthes’ means ‘that which blossoms at nightfall’.
Coral Jasmine
The flower is very attractive with a red corolla tube bearing unequally lobed petals at its top. The petals are snowy white and are usually dotted with dewdrops, for flowering occurs in December when the early hours of the morning are heavy with dew.
Quite a few of the city’s trees bear large and showy flowers, which, for some inexplicable reason, do not feature in local customs and traditions. Indeed many of them are excellent shade-giving trees.
First among them is the Trumpet flower, botanically named Stenolobium stans. It is a common tree growing in many home gardens. Tabebuia rosea, another tree of Mexican origin, bears pale mauve flowers also somewhat trumpet-shaped. The flowers are so lightly coloured that they are more noticeable on the ground rather than on the tree.
Trumpet flower
The most common species is Plumeria alba, the white frangipani that often grows in the backyards of many homes in Chennai. Thespesia Populnea is a common roadside tree in Chennai. Called Poovarasu in Tamil and Portia tree in English, this salt tolerant tree is more commonly seen in the coastal belt.
Quite a few trees growing in Chennai are conspicuous by their foliage. It is the leaves and not the flowers that hold our attention.
Called Asoka Maram or Nettlingam in Tamil, the Mast tree is botanically known as Polyalthia longifolia. This tree is distinguished by its lofty central column, which grows dead straight with branches that grow in acropetal succession (the youngest branch is near the top and the oldest near the base).
The Indian almond is known as Natvadom in Tamil and botanically as Terminalia catappa. It is a favourite backyard tree in Chennai homes. It is a large deciduous tree with dark green leaves, narrow near the base and broad in the middle.
More commonly known as Karuveppilai tree or Curry leaf tree, Murraya Koenigi belongs to the citrus family and as such has leaves studded with oil glands, which are the source of the leaves’ pleasant aroma.
Curry leaf tree
A tree around which a good deal of folklore abounds is Terminalia Arjuna, more commonly known as the Arjun or Marutu in Tamil. The Arjun is a large, evergreen tree with buttressed trunk and a spreading crown from which branches droop downward. Its bark is smooth, grey on the outside, flesh-coloured inside and flakes off in large, flat pieces. The leaves are simple—somewhat sub opposite, oblong, dull green above and pale brown beneath. You have quite a few of these trees on the Harrington Road-Spur Tank Road stretch in Chetput.
Arjun tree
The White silk cotton tree, or Ilavampanju as it is known in Tamil, is far more common in Chennai than the red silk cotton tree. Many a garden sports this tree and the Jeeva Park on GN Chetty Road, T Nagar, has quite a few.
White silk cotton tree
The Mahogany tree is a member of the neem family, Meliaceae. Naturally, it shares several features with the neem. For instance, its leaves are feather-like, with the leaflets borne on either side of a central rachis with an unpaired terminal leaflet. However, the leaflets of mahogany are much smaller and have a smooth margin though, of course, a large vein into two unequal portions, as in neem, divides them.
Mahogany tree
This is the rich biodiversity of the city—similarities and dissimilarities growing together within the same family. Teak trees are seen in many parts of Chennai. A few trees grown in the compound of the AG’s Office on Anna Salai have been there for over a half-century, now. There is a full-grown wild almond tree in Chennai on the campus of St George’s Convent (orphanage) on Poonamallee High Road (now called EVR Salai) opposite Pachaiyappa’s College.
The baobab, a tree introduced by Arabs from Africa, also called the African calabash, is Adansonia Digitata. Its Tamil name is Annaipulli. A couple of baobab trees can be found in the Chepauk cricket ground, at the eastern end of Wallajah Road where it meets the Buckingham Canal.
Called ‘goyya’ in Tamil, this undertree, botanically known as Psidium guajava, is widely grown throughout India. It is found in many backyards Chennai homes, receiving no particular care.
Second in popularity to the mango, the jack is another favourite of Chennaivasis. It is tasty and has medicinal and ritualistic value. The jack tree, botanically called Artocarpus heterophyllusor, Artocarpus integrifolia and palapazham in Tamil is native tree of India.
Jack tree
The jack is a large evergreen tree growing up to about 12-14m. Often seen growing in the backyards of Chennai homes, the jack exhibits a variety of peculiar features.
Mango tree
A tree story with a happy endingThe Kotturpuram Tree Park or Marappoonga is an encouraging development in the city aimed at bringing back local trees in danger of extinction or fast reducing in numbers in Chennai. An initiative of the NGO Nizhal led by nature activist Shobha Menon, the Park project was the result of an approach made in 2008 by the Superintending Engineer of the Public Works Department to Shobha with a request to green a dumpyard on the banks of the river Adyar opposite the Madras Club. “Nizhal activists and willing volunteers, aged from three to seventy plus, developed the park sapling by sapling,” according to Shobha Menon quoted in Madras Musings, the city fortnightly. The late Mr G Dattatri, the first chief urban planner of the Madras Metropolitan Development Authority, lent the project great support. As the PWD did not have the necessary funds, the project became a volunteer–driven effort and Shobha’s persistent efforts won her all round support that included help from the government. (The complete story (by K Venkatesh) of the initial apathy of the community and the persistence of the voluntary group can be read in the September 16-30, 2013 issue of Madras Musings). Today, the park is home to more than 400 trees belonging to over 100 species. |
SOURCE: Trees and Tree Tales – Some common trees of Chennai, Prof KN Rao.