GNP nature walk 17: Hammerhead worm

And just in front of the exit/entry gate was this shiny hammerhead worm, moving across the pathway..

GNP nature walk 15: Coral creeper (antigonon leptopus)

The most noticeable feature of GNP was the coral creeper.. it had spread wide.. covering entire trees and stretches of the ground..  its pink flowers attracting many busy little & big honey bees.

GNP nature walk 14: A beginning and an end

A common emigrant butterfly had just stepped out of its pupa - its wings were wet and it was barely moving, "waiting for the sun to come out and dry its wings", someone said.

And just a few steps away, high up on a branch was this morbid butterfly grave... the bodies of these creatures had probably been devoured by the owner of the web, leaving behind only their wings..

GNP nature walk 13: Jathropha gossypium and lynx spider

Seeing the jathropa gossypium plant is always such a treat- it has beautiful leaves;
this time i also peered closely to admire its small red flowers.



And if that werent enough, someone suddenly noticed the lynx spider on one of its leaves.
What a beauty!!

GNP nature walk 12: More trees

There were many trees that i noticed for the first time during the nature walk at GNP.

The Konji (glycosmis cochinchinensis) with its shiny green leaves and round colourful fruit.

The Red/rose cassia (cassia marginata) with its pretty little flowers.

 The caparis zylanicum (aatantam in tamil) whose leaves were half closed

And this unknown one with its white berry like fruit..

GNP nature walk 11: Clausena dentata (Kaatu karuveppalai)

The park was full of kaatu karuveppalia - clausena dentata. The leaves were bigger than its namesake the karuveppalia (curry leaves) that is used so often in south indian cooking. I tore off a small portion of one leaf and smelt it - very citrus like.

The kaatu elimbchai (jungle lemon) and kaatu narthangai (jungle citron) were also aplenty. I did not get pictures though.

GNP nature walk 10: Banyan

I see many banyans all over the city, but i never tire of them. Seeing the hundreth banyan tree is just as fascinating as the first. I only wish i had more time during the walk to spend at each tree. But we were told to 'stay together' so i had to take a quick picture and hurry up to join the group.

GNP nature walk 9: Sickle bush tree

Midway through the walk we bumped into the bottlebrush like flowers of the sickle bush tree. Half pink and half yellow, the flowers hung between the double pinnate leaves, which were extremely tiny.
The biological name for the sickle bush tree is Dichrostachys cinerea (dichrostachys meaning two colored) and it is also called the chinese lantern tree. i wonder why though - arent chinese lanterns always red?!

GNP nature walk 8: Cissus quandrangularis

Have you eaten south indian applams? (papads in hindi) - then chances are that you have had some cissus quandrangularis. Called 'pirandai' in tamil, it is used in applam making.

Do you know of any other uses ? If so, do comment!

GNP nature walk 7: Tinospora cordifolia

Can you see the thin long roots hanging from these branches? At first i thought they were the roots of the banyan, but was told they were that of a climber/parasite - the tinospora cordifolia. (called "seenthil" in tamil). The ENVIS website says that it has a host of medicinal properties. Ghostly isnt it?

GNP nature walk 6: Indian date palm

The phoenix silvestris stood tall, its trunk crocodile like from the marks made by the leaves. Look at the top of the tree-  do you see the two white shoots coming out?

GNP nature walk 5: White toadstools

GNP nature walk 4: Star tortoise

The only star tortoise that we came across was dead.

GNP nature walk 3: Acacia leucophloea

Right in front of the parking lot was a pretty tree in full bloom.

 

Closer inspection revealed it to be the Acacia leucophloea. (white bark acacia)

We came across it again while walking within the protected area.

All i know about this one is that it isnt indigenous.

GNP nature walk 2: Palmyra palm

No tree walk in chennai is complete without the Palmyra Palm (nongu in tamil) - this omnipresent palm is the state tree of tamilnadu. The latin name is Borassus flabellifer. The fruit is edible, is similar to the flesh of the lychee and is very cooling. Very refreshing in these incredibly hot and humid summers!
The sugary sap from this tree is used to make an alcoholic beverage (toddy) and a concentrated sugar, used in indian cooking (jaggery).

MNS nature walk - Guindy National Park

This month's nature walk organized by the Madras Naturalists Society was at the Guindy National Park. The Guindy children's zoo and snake park are open to the public, but the national park is a protected area that requires special permission and the presence of a forest ranger at all times. The small park - it is only 2.82 km² (1 sq mi) - is an extention of the Governor's residence and that unfortunately kept us off one of the trails as the Governor was supposedly walking down it at the same time. Oh well, the rest of the park was beautiful though and we wandered around looking at the trees, plants and varied fauna of the tropical dry evergreen forest, accompanied by the very knowledgeable guides from the forest department.

Our first peep into the fauna of the area was provided by the Spotted deer (Chital/ Axis deer) which roamed around freely even in the parking lot outside the protected area. Though the parking lot was very well maintained, the little area behind the canteen next to the parking lot was full of plastic. The deer did not seem to mind though.

This one inside the protected area had found a much cleaner spot to spend its sunday morning.

More on the GNP walk in the days to come...