The ponds at the Senmozhi Poonga

It was nice to just sit watch the antics of the ducks at this pond. A nice little sanctuary in the midst of the city.

Spider lilies around the pond.

And the walk back..

Trees, plants and more :-)

Indeed the Senmozhi Poonga had it all.. Here is the 'kalyana murukku' - erythrina indica with its interesting bark.






















Then there was the lac tree. It is not the tree itself that generates the lac, but an insect that is attracted to the tree.

I loved the patch of  jatropha duckfoot , it had butterflies flitting all over, just about as many as i saw in the butterfly garden in Bannerghatta.

Then there was the champa - plumeria/frangipani with its serene white flowers.

The lovely smelling lavender and the spectacular passionflower

This one i have not identified yet.

Senmozhi Poonga continued

Walking into the Senmozhi Poonga, we first noticed some small fish tail palms. Apparently the fibre of this tree is so strong, it is used to tie elephants!











And a little inside was a carpet of this lovely little yellow flower..

Some birds had come visiting and looked much like statues on the water bodies that had been built.

Plenty more small plants...

fish tail fern

snow bush

And another very interesting tree- the terminalia mantaly - whose branches were parallel to the ground instead of pointing skyward like most other trees.

And clear blue skies... in all, the perfect day for a lovely stroll.

Senmozhi Poonga Nizhal walk

Nizhal had organized a tree walk at the Senmozhi Poonga a while back; and having really enjoyed these walks in the past, I made my periodic Chennai visit coincide with the date planned for the event.

It was lovely, as always. We started off looking at the Cannon ball tree, which has some incredibly beautiful flowers.

The entrance had some lovely old trees.. there was a Peepal tree - ficus religiosa, under which Buddha attained enlightenment. Unlike the Peepal, the Tamarind is one under which locals do not like to sit long, something to do with the large amount of carbon dioxide it generates, perhaps.

Here is the terminala arjuna, a tree that typically grows by the river. Someone remarked that  this area used to be marsh like many many years back... perhaps there was a river?

A well grown garden lettuce - pisonia alba. The garden lettuce aids digestion.

This next one I missed the english name of. "Yettikai" was the tamil name - if you know it in english, please leave a comment. The fruit was ball like and orange in colour, the seeds were like coins.

All these trees by the entrance looked really old. This area is part of the original horticultural society established during the British rule in 1835.

By the edge was the java olive, sterculia foetida.

 We took quite some time outside, admiring the trees and then slowly made our way inside. I'll write about the plants and trees within in another post.