Indigenous Trees of Kerala

This video is about planting trees in our gardens or plots, even close to our houses. I’ve already spoken about this subject. But this is to tell you about certain other aspects of it. There are many people who desire to plant trees near their houses. In my plot, I have six- or eight-foot space around the house. There is a cashew tree here. It is an exotic species that came from Portugal. The previous owner of this plot had planted many cashew trees here and there among the rocks. The design of its branches is very beautiful, almost artistic. You can see them for yourself. More of its branches are sprouting and they will grow taller, curving this way and that, and then, getting stunted, will look quite unlike any other tree. By the time the cashew apples become ripe, many birds will come here.

This is not the peculiarity of one tree alone. There are many others that have distinctive features. Take the kindal tree, for instance. We have a lot of flowering trees like golden shower, gulmohar and so on that are planted as avenue trees. But blackboard tree is not seen on road sides. In fact, we don’t see blackboard trees in Kerala. But in Delhi we see a lot of them on the sides of roads. The kindal is an ordinary tree. The three-leaved caper puts out a lot of flowers. Here, you will see kindal in full bloom. From a distance, you will think that the bunches are predominantly white. But when you get closer, the red petals begin to appear with clarity. The petals are as small, shaped like tamarind leaves, and the sheer size of the bunches is simply amazing.

I’m standing close to my house. There are two trees nearby. One is strychnine, whose fruits fall from time to time. Going by the resemblance, we assumed that the other one too was strychnine. In fact no one, even the botanists who came here, paid much attention to it. It was only recently that I noticed its uniqueness. A flower bunch seemed to appear but on closely 0bserving it, I noticed it was a sprig of thorns, nearly as hardy and pointed as a porcupine quills. Each is more than two inches long. If I push someone against this tree, several thorns will certainly pierce his body. When they are tender, the thorns look red and beautiful. It is when they mature, that the tree seems to sport a thorny armour from top to bottom. This is the potato plum of Mysore, and it bears fruits.

Another one is the Indian rosewood which grows among these rocks here. It takes a long time to grow but when it does, the formation of the branches looks really attractive. Then there are the two Indian mulberry trees, Morinda tinctorea (Manjanathi, in Malayalam) and Morinda citrifolia (Noni, in Malayalam) that belong to the same family. The second one is popularly believed to be a Malaysian tree but it is not. It grows profusely by the sides of lakes.  Morinda tinctorea and cashew trees can be found growing among the rocks. The bark of Morinda tinctorea is wrinkly but beautiful. Its specialty lies in its flowers that are small and as fragrant as orange jasmine.

Yet another tree is the yellow silk cotton which puts out yellow flowers. It emerges out of the cracks of rocks. Adivasis use its fruits to make snacks. Not only yellow silk cotton, many other trees too grow among rocks.  Solitary fishtail palms thrive well here. A climber that grows in such an environment is Ukshi. It climbs over trees, and the stems hang in tangled formations. Its flowers come in bunches and are white in colour. The climber is not only more beautiful than other climbers but also grows thick enough to resemble a tree.

Such rare varieties of trees grow in our land. But we have forgotten nearly all of them. All that we recall are the names of foreign trees, just as our native breeds of dogs have nearly vanished and we know the names of only foreign dog species. We plant exotic varieties of plants like the silver oak but fail to observe the beauty of indigenous types. Each of these has a story of survival to tell, about how it managed to live in these rocky outcrops where there is very little water. Let us take the initiative to learn about them. Even the owner of a five-cent plot will be able to grow two or three trees of this type.

Another noteworthy issue concerns the disappearance of the tailpot palm (locally known as kudappana), whose leaves were used to write on. Its relative, the palmyra palm, is seen in large numbers in Palakkad region, and the Thiruvananthapuram-Tamil Nadu border areas. The tailpot palm is a tree that we have to conserve because its spathes provide space for parrots and mynahs to build their nests. Earlier, the pith of this palm was given as fodder to buffaloes and ducks. Its large leaves cluster together to give a beautiful, umbrella-like appearance. There is a place named Kudappanakunnu in Thiruvananthapuram. But I haven’t seen a single kudappana or tailpot palm in that area. Similarly, Khajuraho gets its name from the khajur tree (date palm) that grew there once. But it is not commonly seen there now.
Therefore, we need to retrieve our indigenous plants and trees. Today it is possible to grow any kind of tree. We have shown you how they grow even in the most hostile of environments. So let us have them in our garden plots or compounds. You may ask, “Won’t they grow really tall? Won’t they fall on our houses? Won’t their roots penetrate the foundation of our buildings?’ and so on. Haven’t we seen even banyan trees cultivated as bonsai? In a similar fashion, it is possible to have these trees in our compound if we prune the branches wisely. Here itself, I have two or three trees that have been pruned properly. Thus if each household plants a tree and if each panchayat has 1,000 houses, we will be able to protect 1,000 trees.

Kerala has nearly 4,000 species of plants, of which less than 1,000 are trees. If we put our minds to it, each one of us can plant and raise saplings of a couple of trees that face the threat of extinction. I request that you make the effort. It can be done even in a five-cent plot. That is the reason why I showed you these shots. We don’t need to fear that our fast-disappearing native species of mango and jack will grow enormous because it is possible to regulate their size. Therefore I request that all of you try your hand at doing it.