|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After hibernating in the long winters, in Kashmir, we seized the spring season with passion and wanted to stay out welcoming the opening up of the earliest flowers. Fairs were held to welcome the almond blossoms—the first of the many fruit trees to flower. After moving to North India, one got nostalgic about the spring unfolding its beauty in Kashmir but nature being bountiful, I watched in awe the miracle of nature bringing forth an extravaganza of colourful blossoms on wayside trees in comparatively hot and dry spring here in the plains. Semul (Bombax malabarica) is the harbinger of spring here. Huge and imposing, the trees first shed all their leaves at the height of winter and suddenly they are clothed in big bouquets of crimson and coral flowers. Flame of the Forest (Butea frondosa or B. monosperma) or dhaak is a common forest tree covering hectares of wasteland. It flowers in February and March in leafless condition—getting flaming scarlet—orange flowers which contain enough nectar to invite sunbirds, mynahs and babblers in addition to bees. Jacaranda mimosaefolia or neeli gulmohar comes with an efflorescent display of blue and manure tubular flowers with a delicate fern like foliage in March–April. Though a native of Brazil, it grows well in our part of the country. Bauhinia variegata (Kachnaar) and others are various species indigenous to India. They spread a splash of colour on one or more of the petals. Large flowers grow in short sprays bearing two or three blooms ranging frame white, pink, mauve to magenta and may flower from March to May. Erythrina Indica or coral tree has grey gnarled and rugged branches, which produce smooth and deep red flowers in stemmed, diminishing spikes of numerous whorls of flowers and buds. It also attracts crows, mynahs, babblers and parakeets for the love of nectar it provides in February-March. Soon enough the Gulmohars (Delonix or Poinciana Regia) with their umbrella-shaped feathery foliage is laden with scarlet red flowers to adorn the parks and gardens in April-May. And as if in competition with the various scarlet and pink flowers of spring, the Amaltas (Cassia Fistula) shed their dusty leaves to metamorphose into radiant clusters of golden pendulous sprays of fragrant pea-like flowers. The whole atmosphere gets refreshing and one wonders how it can stay fresh in this heat. Myriad other colours form the palette of nature’ canvass adorn parks, gardens and even the trees on roadsides announcing the advent of spring inviting landscapers and urban planners to add colour and beauty to the concrete jungles that our cities are getting transformed into.
|
|||
|
|
|||
