Tag: Tree

It looks out of this world

Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Dehradun is about one and half kilometer from the place I live. I regularly go up to the gate of the institute during my morning walk. Many a times, I extend my walk to the inside the Institute. It was established in the year 1906.

Nowadays it conducts trainings for the candidates selected for Indian Forest Service, for the forest rangers, M.Sc courses. The institute itself is situated in a very big campus which have trees of every kind found in India.

Institute is situated in the middle and building is majestic. Despite being so old it mesmerizes the beholder. It houses the laboratories, museum which contains specimen of wood of trees, non woody products, the bugs which thrive on the trees and is divided into 5 modules. Guides are also available if one wants.

This is about the buildings but the real beauty is outside where sprawling green grass lawns, water brooks, the mighty trees, bamboos of umpteen variety can be seen. As everyone knows, the work of growing the trees is a very painstaking one, it must have taken years for many trees to reach their majestic heights and beauty.

As you walk through the jungles and woods, you feel transported to an altogether different world. A world that is so peaceful and serene and you are compelled to praise the God who has created it all.

The varieties of the trees are numerous ranging in size from few centimeters to hundreds of feet. In the morning time one forgets that he is in this world but feels that he is in heaven. There is no pollution. The air is fresh. Yonder the blue Mussoorie hills form the backdrop. When sky is not overcast, it is so blue.

I remember the dialogues between two brothers in the movie Slumdog Millionaire after being thrown from the train near Agra. When dust thins before them and the visage of Taj Mahal looms before them. Younger one says “is this the heaven? ” Elder one tells that No, we are not dead it is real. Similar experience is felt if you leave your thoughts that encumber you behind. If you get a chance visit this place and feel for yourself.

I visited the place after many days and took some snaps. Due to the clouds and early morning, the pictures are a bit hazy as if one is seeing them in the dream.

1 / 7

It is Green All Around

The effect of Spring season is different on different species of trees. Some are in great hurry and begin to change their habits at the earliest. Some are very patient and wait on and begin to sprout the beautiful transparent light colored leaves when the leaves of the early starters have already become dull and dark green.

Banyan trees are different. I saw them shed copious quantities of the dry leaves daily with the help of strong breeze. When they became almost skeletons, new copper colored leaves come out all over the tree. The trees look to be made of copper.

There are other trees which do not bring out leaves at all but flowers. Very beautiful golden color bunches hang from the skeleton of branches. The flowers can be seen against the azure skies as backdrop. Another category brings forth both leaves as well as flowers.

What do these trees ask from us? Except a little care when they are small and tender, not to be tinkered with unnecessarily. They give us everything without asking.

First of all, all the carbon dioxide which animals generate daily through there metabolism and other means of comfort like factories, electric appliances etc, is taken over by these trees and plants. They eat it and convert it into glucose and higher carbohydrates and release oxygen.

These are the things which animals survive on. Thus we see that animals and plants are dependent on one another. So if we release carbon dioxide which exceeds what is required by plants then we have carbon dioxide that causes problems like breathing discomfort and acts as a trap for heat which is generated on the Earth and causes heating. To obviate this we have to have more plants.

Today I took some more photos. Please look closely.

Evening Walk

It was Friday and holiday due to the birthday of some leader. I could not get up early in the morning and therefore missed my morning walk. I decided to make up by going out in the evening.

The day before there was big wind with heavy showers. It seemed as if there will be much needed respite from sweltering heat. Whenever one goes out for a walk, the oppressive heat engulfs him. It weaves a cocoon around us and tries to suffocate us by imprisoning us in its cocoon. I thought that climate will cool down but it turned out to be empty rhetoric. It was all thunder storm and wind which albeit broke many weak twigs from the trees and some fronds from the palms lining the avenues. There was huge banging of windows and doors. The rain caught many unawares. There was a puppy which was wailing due to rain and though its mother had brought it into the entrance of our block, it was feeling very fidgety and tinkered with cycles parked near the staircase.

It became quite pleasant after the rain and thunder has gone. Also it became evening. The clouds were thin white transparent and scanty. There was the moon in the sky. It peeked through the veil of the clouds and looked dull and sick. Here and there, occasional stars also penetrated through the veil.

What was more?

It was completely peaceful. There was no movement in the nature. Not a leaf was rustling. It was in complete contrast to the afternoon’s weather. Nature seemed to have gone to still mode from the animated mode. All seemed like a picture. Had it not been for the wet roads, dripping trees, nature had tried its best not to leave a trace of its exploits. But the water on roads, poodles in the nearby ground betrayed it. Otherwise nature had become so still like a naughty boy who after spoiling many things in the house plays a very timid and obedient boy. Only sounds that of cicadas which were piercing the otherwise rare tranquility. There cacophony was as if hundreds of tailors are snipping the cloth pieces with the scissors. Bats were flying from one tree to another and foraging for fruits hanging on the branches. Partially eaten fruits, the rinds lay scattered beneath the trees. It was not the handiwork of bats alone because in the day time, parrots gorge on these trees.

And lo, suddenly without any rhyme or reason, breeze has broken and started shaking the leaves of the branches. The still picture has dissolved and animation mode again has become active. In fact, the the weather here is still very hot and humid. Even during the night, many times the body perspire effusively. There has been no torrential rains which every year threaten the city. In fact the city has become captive to such abnormal phenomena. Though the rain is necessary for agriculture, for filling up the lakes around Mumbai with such exotic names like Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Vaitarna and Bhatsa because the water for city supply comes from these lakes, yet BMC must be feeling happy that this year nature has not put it into embarrassing position and exposed the inadequate arrangements made to deal with the flood situation.

View from Window

The view from from window of my room at 4 O’clock in the Evening:

It is 4 O’clock in the evening. The sunshine is becoming pale at the approach of the evening. The mornings, evenings and nights are becoming cooler. Sky is still clear. Sitting in the same room of my home on the third floor, I am looking at the scene out side from the window.

The outline of trees looks like the drawing of a child making lines with a pencil which are not straight but serrated. The shadows and lights are playing exclusive games in the branches which are swaying due to strong breeze. When one is there other is gone and vice versa.

There is a meadow below and cows and buffaloes are grazing lazily. As they graze, cranes accompany them to catch the insects which are scurried due to the grazing animals. Many of them can be seen perching over the tops of animals.

The shadows of the rows of trees are beginning to lengthen and crawling over over the fields and are moving towards my room. Some boys are trying to catch fish from a pond near the edge of tree rows. The pond is irregular in shape and its still water looks shines due to sunlight falling on it.

From above it looks like a shard of glass, very longish and narrow. White cranes and black egrets are plunging into the water occasionally and rest of the time sit on the nearby bushes.

Airplanes keep on coming at very low height as they are descending preparing for landing at Chandigarh airport which is very near. Sometimes very huge cargo plane is seen passing very near our buildings with deafening noise.

Evening

Sitting in the room of my home which has large glass panels opening in West direction, I am looking at the Sun going down leaving behind a copper colored hue in the West.

The sky is smeared with mild clouds of different transparencies. There are thick columns of of poplar trees which are now loosing their individuality and taking on dark shroud.

There are kites flying and sometimes swooping down on their prey. Snow white cranes are leaving the grazing grass grounds and flying towards their homes. Even as I am typing these words the whole scene is becoming ambiguous and soon darkness will swallow the day.

Bottlebrushes in Bloom

In March spring season heralds here. The nature awakens from its hibernation of freezing cold and there is a thaw in the season. The plants and trees after shedding the old leaves adorn themselves with fresh light green leaves. Within days the skeleton branches are covered with leaves. The days are becoming longer and hot. Soon it will become very hot and unbearable.

The weather in India are not uniform and almost every 3 months weather changes. This is why the natives here are in continuous struggle with the weather. There are extremes of weather in North India. This gives India a vast variety of vegetation.

The bottlebrush trees also called Callistemon so called because their shape resembles the brush used to clean the bottles. These days the trees are laden with these flowers of red color. There is a strong contrast between the rich green leaves and these flowers which hang like garlands on the tree.

All day long different animals and birds visit these trees to lick the pollen from the flowers. First in the morning are monkeys especially their kids which can easily reach the ends of the branches where the flowers are located. They eat the nutritious pollen and then snap the flowers from the branch. After this parrots come in big groups. They chatter, make noise and lick the pollen. They are the worst and break most of the flowers and the ground beneath is littered with fresh broken flowers.

Nightingales also come. If you look closer you will find the honey bees hovering around the flowers. There is a continuous buzz. They are the gentlest and use the flowers to make honey-one of the nature’s best gift to us.

Stomatal Index and Level of Carbondioxide in Atmosphere

There was a time when things started rolling on with advent of photosynthesis by cyano-bacteria or green algae which began preparing its food from carbon dioxide and water which were the only substances available in plenty. They paved the way for introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere and for beginning of life dependent on oxygen.

In fact, both the products made by photosynthesis namely sugar and oxygen are used by animals including humans for sustaining their life. We animals are thus the species who learned to make use of the leg work of others to our own advantage. Of course, in today’s world, human beings who do this are termed smarter than the others.

So what the plants and algae used for making their food is being recycled back to the atmosphere in the form of green house gases. Plants use CO2 and H2O and take energy from the Sun to convert these to sugars and animals extract that energy from the food synthesized by plants and algae and return the CO2 and H2O back to the atmosphere.

CO2 is in fact one of the end products of burning the fossil fuels like coal and petroleum which are the preserved forms of energy of Sun due to being buried away from the reach of oxygen. Since all industrial activities use extensively these fuels, levels of CO2 are rising in the atmosphere to alarming levels.

Trees breathe in the CO2 through the stomatal pores present in their leaves. They also lose the water through these pores during the day. They are smart enough to adjust the size of their leaves so as to optimize the intake of CO2 and loss of H2O for proper growth.

One such tree was born in 1948 in a isolated place on the edge of a pit 30 kilometers from Dutch city called Eindhoven. By 1990 it was a big majestic tree as most of the Birch family trees are. Scientists from the laboratory of Paleo-botany and Palynology named it fondly “Big Betty”.

During each autumn, the tree will shed a carpet of dry leaves into the pit. So layer after layer is deposited inside the pit. But scientists noticed a peculiar thing about the leave size. Each year the leave size began becoming smaller thus reducing the stomatal index. This was due to the fact that as levels of CO2 rose, the tree needed fewer number of stomata to inhale the same quantity as required and thus avoided the undue loss of moisture from the leaves. In fact when the levels of CO2 were plotted against the stomatal indices of leaves over these years, they matched the patterns of levels of CO2 variations. So the stomatal index was used to calibrate and interpolate the results to guess the levels of CO2 in the past.

Distant Relatives

The more I watch the nature closely and more I go through the literature, it is becoming clear how shallow is our knowledge of the world around us which the God has created.

Sometimes I become more and more confused and become awestruck when some mystery of nature becomes clear to me.

As we know that living things are related to one another at some stage or other during evolution though they must have diversified at some period of time but at least some basic properties resemble.

By the end of January and February, one can notice that Pipal trees which is very sacred tree of India, copiously shed their leaves. All day the leaves fall to the ground following zigzag trajectories. The wind forces them to float and it seems that they are reluctant to fall to the ground beneath the tree.

Whole ground beneath the tree becomes strewn with leaves. Within few days, the trees look like skeletons, completely shorn of  leaves. All the other trees around them have already acquired new green leaves.

But it is matter of days. The new translucent leaves burst out of the branches and the whole tree is decorated with reddish brown leaves which seem to be very beautiful. One can notice the change which the tree undergoes and it is completely covered with lush green leaves. Then many birds are seen visiting them. They are there for eating the very small rounded green fruits. If you break this fruit with slight pressure of fingers you can see that inside is just like figs.

At the same time, there are other trees, the trunks of which are covered with similar type of fruits as that of Pipal. But these fruits are very numerous, bigger and become brown red on ripening. The ground is totally covered with these fruits and there is smell of food decomposition and formation of alcohol due to fermentation. Lots of ants roam on the tree and bore into the delicate fruits to eat the fruit inside. The fruit bear uncanny resemblance to Pipal fruits.

Otherwise, the look of both these trees is completely dissimilar. Leaves are different. While Banyan tree has cordate type of leaves, the Indian Fig has lanceolate types of leaves.

But in my mind, the picture began to became clearer that may be they were related. Internet queries revealed the truth. Both are ficus genera and are commonly called figs. The botanical name of Pipal or Banyan  is Ficus religiosa and other one is Indian fig.

Ficus Lutea
Pipal or Banyan
Fruits of Banyan

After Amaltas it is the turn of Gulmohars

Though golden blooms on Amaltas (cassia fistula) trees have begun to fade, they are still hanging there. The flowers are loosing their hue steadily and once where only flowers were hanging all over the trees, thick green foliage has begun to appear on the trees. Perhaps, they are feeling too much heat and are unable to withstand it and are withering away. I have pictures of them when they were in full glory. Below is the one.

Amaltas flowers

So, you can see the beauty of the nature, expressed in the golden flowers of Amaltas tree. But alas! now it is almost gone. They are presently in the decline and destruction. “From dust unto dust”.

What if they are now waning? Another tree is now in full bloom. It is called “Gulmohar” in India. Its scientific name is Royal poinciana The flowers are bold red and it seems that there is fire of red colour raging. It’s flowers are in complete contrast to the Amaltas of tree flowers. They are complementing the torrid heat of the season. Here are some pictures which I took only today. These trees are locating in our colony. They are very majestic and deep green with flowers dominating them these days.

Gulmohar

Enjoy this color of the nature also. We should not wait and watch because by the time you will be waiting, this will pass to dust like everything else. The cycle of death and life goes on eternally. They are like two serpents which have caught hold the other by the tail end like the carbons in benzene dreamed once upon by Kekule.

Identification of Plants and Trees in My Locality

Innumerable plants grow on the earth. The very diversity is mind boggling. We did not even know the names of plants growing around us. In fact, most of us never bother to even look around. These become just the backdrop of landscape we dwell in. I don’t think that even God, the creator, has given them names. It is us mortals, who in order to make our life easier document the things. We give nomenclature to everything living in the nature. We have classified them into different kingdoms for our convenience and harmony in the views of different individuals.

I always has the curiosity to know the names of plants around us, the plants which give us hope, clean the atmosphere and provide oxygen for us humans to breathe, give beauty to the surroundings. I admit I don’t know the names of most of them.

In this effort, while searching and searching for days, I chanced upon a website about the flowering trees of India. This site is treasure trove of information about the plants and trees. Thanks to this website, I have been identify some of the plants and trees growing in my colony. Here is a start.

Agave:

It is also called century plant. It is native of Mexico. In India it has different names like Kamal Cactus, Gwarpatha, Kantala. Its scientific name is agave Americana.

(agave)

Snake Plant

Also known as Mother in law’s tongue plant. Its botanical name is Sansevieria trifasciata. It belongs to Agavaceae (agave family). It originally belongs to Africa and is best suited for potting. It is sturdy plant and requires minimal care.

(snake plant)

Cashew Nut Tree

Cashew nut is a nut every Indian is aware of. It is amongst the famous dry fruits like almonds and other nuts. Following are two pictures of this tree. The nut is used in many sweets as well as in culinary preparations. The tree is known by many names like Kaju in Hindi, Kaju in Marathi. In Goa where it grows in abundance, a wine is made by fermenting the fruit. The wine is called Feni.

It must have been introduced here by Portuguese who brought it from Brazil. They called it Caju.

(Cashew)

Fishtail Palm

This tree stands in the ground behind hospital in our colony. It looks very majestic. Those beaded threads hanging in a huge bunch like the beard of an saint.

Common names around India are Fishtail Palm, Jaggery Palm, Toddy Palm, Wine Palm. Its botanical name is Caryota urens. And it belongs to Palm family.

(Fishtail Palm)

When these palms grow to reach a height of about 20 feet, they start producing flowers at the top of the trunk with subsequent flowers produced lower and lower on the trunk. When the lowest flower blooms, the tree dies. Flowers are long plait like bunches hanging down.

Barringtonia

These are the trees which bear very beautiful flowers. These flowers hang on the tree branches like garlands. The flowers has a very short life: only one night. By the morning, the branches which were laden with flowers begin to shed the flowers which plop like rain on the surface. Whole ground beneath the trees become a carpet of red color, which nature seems to have rolled out to welcome the passersby.

Common names are Barringtonia, Freshwater Mangrove, Indian Oak, Indian Putat.

(Barringtonia)

Traveler’s Palm

This plant is growing in the lawn in front of our office lawn. Its botanical name is Ravenala madagascariensis and belongs Strelitziaceae (Bird of Paradise) family.

The tree is native of Madagascar. It is not a palm in true sense. Part it looks like Banana and part as a palm.

A lot of rain water collects in the tree frond brackets. Travelers are said to be make use of this water in a forest. That is the reason it got its name.

(Traveler’s Palm)

Kadam Tree

The tree has many names in Indian languages as in Hindi it is called Kadamb. Its botanical name is Neolamarckia cadamba.

Kadam was the favourite tree of Krishna and is held in great esteem in Hindu mythology. A postal stamp was issued by the Indian Postal Department to commemorate this tree

(Kadamb)

The Frustration Principle

When we observe the trees and plants around us, we find that even the plants of the same species bear different sizes and shapes. In fact no two trees are alike even if they are growing near one another. This is the result of the intense competition and many traits that trees have to face and acquire.

Every tree tries to reproduce to propagate its lineage. For this it produces seeds. But this is not the end of the story. The seeds have to be broadcast away from the tree preferably to a place where the parent tree does not have its influence over the resources required for growth. To scatter the seeds the tree shall in ideal case try to grow very tall and branches at the top.

Now take its second trait. Every tree has to harvest the sun energy. For optimal absorption of the energy the tree shall desire to have the design in which branches shall be horizontal and non-overlapping. This way every leaf will act as a energy cell.

Third trait is mechanical stability. For this the tree shall want minimum horizontal branches because the branches shall try to destabilize it.

Now as the saying goes no one gets the complete world. The foremost truth about the life is compromise. So when all the traits compete simultaneously there is compromise. The mixing ratios of the traits is the result of the helplessness of the tree. This behavior has been called “Frustration Principle” by biologist Karl Niklas. Niklas used computer models in which he kept the two traits constant and varied the third one. The results were as expected but when he mixed the traits in different ratios the final shape of the tree was like we see in reality around us.

This can be compared to smart cellphones which have a camera also. Although cellphone camera does good work but it cannot replace the stand alone camera. Similarly we have gadgets which can do many jobs but they are good for picnics where it is not the refinement but collection of many tools which come as handy but are not as perfect in quality as the individual tool shall be. But then who wants to take a lots of tools for picnic?

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%