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.
