Laburnum flowers in shastri nagar

My last two weeks in Chennai before I move .. 

Bougainvillea in chennai 4.7

Extending my stay in Chennai as our move in June becomes imminent. No more visit s to chennai every three months. 

White carpet

 

The heady intoxicating aroma of the morinda tinctoria always puts me in a good mood. Is it the connection my brain makes to Manderley that makes it so?

 

11.03

New beginnings - in the Chennai garden Sept 2013

Chennai Garden - August 2013

 

 

 

Chennai garden - July 2013

Every time I go home, I find something interesting in the garden. This time, aside from the usual lovely butterflies, there was this little mango sapling that had come out of a seed that my mother had sown after eating off the fruit.

Chennai Marathon

some interesting sights while in Chennai for the marathon/10K

Indian Laburnum in full bloom on the way to the Leela to collect the bibs

 

View of the Adyar Poonga from the bridge across to karpagam avenue

 

Neem tree buds on the morning of the run

 

 

The run itself...

 

 

 

This tiny flower, no larger than my thumbnail, had dropped off a tree and almost formed a carpet along the sidewalk. I tried digging through 'flowers of india' to identify the flower/ tree but in vain; if you know what it is , please do leave a comment.

Update - thank you College Gardener! it is most likely the wrightia tinctoria.

 

 

Garlands being sold on adyar bridge

 

 

 

Pictures from my mother through the last two months

A Tree Walk for kids at Nageswara Rao Park

From the Mylapore Times, April 9th 2013

When my friend invited me for a ‘Tree Walk’  at Nageswara Rao Park I agreed more for my daughter’s sake than my own. As we waited for the Walk to start, Vagesh, a class IV student of PSBB School, narrated a story to the kids. It was relaxing to sit under the shade of the Pipal tree and listen to this little boy talking animatedly.
When Babu of ‘Nizhal’ started explaining about the beautiful and statuesque trees near the Chess Square, I realised that the tree walk could be interesting to adults too. We started with the huge Pipal tree or ‘Arasa maram’ at the centre of the park. Babu gave the children many interesting facts about the huge trees surrounding the Chess Square like the Fish tail Palm tree, Copper pod tree, Java cassia tree and the Rain tree.

I was glad that we had such a well maintained park in our neighbourhood.  It is heartening to see that the once neglected park is now abuzz with activity, Sunday morning kutcheris, evening tree walks and storytelling. Inspite of the heat and humidity, it was indeed refreshing to be outdoors and watch the children engrossed in a tree walk, collecting different types of leaves, flowers and seeds.

Childrens Space, a library for kids under the age of 10, based in Alwarpet (http://www.childrensspacechennai.com), organised the tree walk in association with “Nizhal’, an NGO in the city (http://www.nizhaltn.org).  The library plans to hold such walks once a month so as to help children get more interested and involved with nature at an early age.

Berries from chennai - black nightshade (solanum americanum)

Not all berries are edible.. a bit of googling reveals that these berries might be best left alone on the plant.

Tamil New year at Chennai

This tamil new year we were at Chennai and on the spur of the moment one morning we took a walk to boat club road and kotturpuram. I thought it would be nice to head to the PWD park that Nizhal was helping build and maintain. We reached there after a good long walk through the shady roads of boat club, the hot and exposed kotturpuram bridge (past hoards of birds sitting along the weeds on the adyar river) and I was pleasantly surprised ot see all the changes - the entrance itself had been rebuilt and there were pathways laid inside, with lights to help late evening walkers. There was a volunteer from nizhal busily watering all the plants , with whom I struck up a conversation.

Coming home I looked back to my posts and realized it was a good two years since I had visiting the park.. the last was on a sunday evening around this time in 2011. How time flies.

Grandmothers garden update

While at Chennai in April I took a few pictures of my grandmothers garden.. she does not get out much these days and it has unfortunately become quite an effort for her to go downstairs and spend some time in the garden. I thought these pictures would help her see what was blooming and how things were, to supplement what she was hearing from those who passed by.

Mapping Chennai’s canopy by Hema Vijay

From The Hindu, April 12th 2013

T.T.K. Road, once an avenue of banyan trees, today has none. In Thiru-Vi-Ka Park, seven huge Trincomalee Wood trees and a large Barringtonia tree got the axe for the Metro Rail project. In St George’s Cathedral, a large and very rare Button tree was cut to make way for an exhibit centre.

We plant trees randomly but worse, we cut trees randomly, with not a thought for maintaining urban green spaces, or preserving tree species. As a result, much of Chennai’s tree wealth has been wiped out, with rare and irreplaceable trees routinely cut to make way for roads, houses or bus-stops.

A lot of this happens because botanists are not consulted before trees are cut. “Some trees can be transplanted; others can be preserved by designing infrastructure or routes around them,” says Dr. R. Pauline Deborah, professor of plant biology at Women's Christian College. The average person is not even aware of which tree is rare or really old.

Now, that could change. Over the last four years, Deborah has trudged through the city to collect images and data on Chennai’s trees for her thesis on ‘Tree Diversity in Urban Landscaping with Special Reference to Chennai’. The massive and comprehensive databank can now be used by policy-makers to preserve the city’s irreplaceable tree wealth and develop Chennai along sustainable lines.

“A map on tree cover can be used to guide planned development in the city, be it residential, commercial, educational or governmental. The Indian Constitution already stipulates this but there is no compliance,” says Dr. Abdul Razak, Professor and HoD at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University.

Deborah’s research includes Chennai’s tree diversity and how it has changed across the years, rare trees and their locations, heritage trees and their locations, tree hotspots, spatial distribution maps of trees, ratio of exotic species vs. native species, and much more. For instance, she found that the ratio of exotic to native trees in Chennai is 70:30, an ecologically disastrous scenario. “Exotics are suitable for a few home gardens, parks, institutions or botanical gardens. They are highly unfit for planting as avenue trees since they can easily topple during monsoons and cause fatal accidents and property damage. Moreover, exotic species can alter the water table or soil pH. Some of them can even turn invasive like the Mesquite, Muntingia and Custard Apple, posing a threat to native vegetation,” says the professor.

Architecture students are routinely asked to map trees, water bodies and other natural features of a site and come up with building designs that preserve these. During professional practice, though, this aspect is often overlooked. “To ensure compliance, it must be legalised, with the local government monitoring the construction,” says Razak.

At the very least, it requires widespread awareness creation, which is where tree data becomes invaluable. “User friendly, web-based, open-source collaborative technology that improves information sharing, communicates the value of urban forests, and engages communities in creating greener urban environments is an imperative need,” says Shobha Menon, founder trustee, Nizhal, which has mapped trees in areas such as Valmiki Nagar and Gandhi Nagar.

Deborah’s research finds that 54 tree species in Chennai are restricted to just 3 per cent of the city, and she warns, “This includes some very rare trees that exist as single trees or in small populations of less than a dozen, and they are at risk of being totally wiped out from the city if cut. For example, Gustavia Augusta Trees or Tree Lotus have beautiful flowers resembling a small lotus and are found only inside the Theosophical Society. There are only 34 heritage trees like the Baobab left in Madras Medical College. Each has a girth of about 10 m and is more than 150 years old; they need protection.”

Rare tree hotspots in Chennai include the Theosophical Society, Agri-Horticultural Society, Guindy Reserve Forest, IIT, Raj Bhavan, Women’s Christian College, Madras Christian College, Nageswara Rao Park, Anna University, YMCA Nandanam, Pachiappa’s College and Presidency College.

The pity is that, thus far, tree mapping and city planning have remained largely isolated from one another. Perhaps the new databank could change this.

Revival of the garden - Chennai 2013

For some years now my mothers garden has not been tended to very much because of her travels. Now that she is back at home , she's taken back to gardening in full swing.
The results are really nice to see.. bougainvillas, jasmine, hibiscus, a few tomatoes, garlic, ginger, spinach and many more...



Here is the cutting of the white bougainvilla that we took to patti's place as a gift.

Grandmother's garden update

A recent visit to Chennai and I return with many pictures of my grandmother's garden.

Palm fronds.

Various crotons that need shelter from the piercing heat outside

Calathea ornata, in the process of shedding old leaves

New stuff in the garden

Crossandra

Jasmine

Heliconia Rostrata

Ixora

Hibiscus

White firecracker plant

Chilli

Banana and drumstick

Fish tail palm