The roadside stretches of freshly blossomed trees in the stretch of Necklace Road, Sanjeevaiah Park, Botanical Garden and Osmania University areas in the most happening leisure places of Hyderabad.
Before the Hyderabad is draped in a pleasant green foliage after monsoon, a different-yet-equally beautiful landscape unfolds in spring or summer here. Dotting a stretches of the dried-up vegetation in these forests between February and April are a myriad of flowering trees in bloom that beckon the nature-lovers.
The most abundant and visible of all flowering trees is moduga or palash, aptly known as the flame of the forest (Butea monosperma) for its orange-coloured thick inflorescence. The dark colour of the blossom stands out against the brown of the parched earth in summer.
There is also a generous sprinkling of the boorugu chettu (Bombax ceiba) with reddish flowers. This tree, like the moduga, sheds its flowers early in the morning that forms a colourful carpet under these trees.
Another tree also sheds its flowers in the small hours every day starting from late February and ending in mid-April depending on the flowering period. The flowers, however, are known more for the light fragrance that they emit.
“The early-risers get to take in the fragrance of these flowers. When we proceed into the jogging track or mostly deserted road in the early morning time as the sun rises, the orange and red canopies of the moduga and boorugu come into sight,” said Sanjay Kumar, an athlete from Masab Tank area. “The dryness of the trees is also compensated by the palakodise (Wrightea tinctorea), dumpena (Lannea coromandelica) budda dharmi (Careya arborea) and poosugu (Schleichera oleosa) trees. The first two have white blossoms, while budda dharmi sprouts beautiful white or yellow coloured flowers and the red tender leaves of poosugu grow like petals of flowers,” said E. Narasimha Murthy, a professor in Botany Department at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
“Almost all of these trees shed leaves before flowering. This is to reduce energy consumption in the water-stressed months,” he added, explaining the science behind the phenomenon.
The flowering and fruit-yielding trees not only make the place beautiful, but are important constituents of the food chain. For example, frugivorous of fruit-eating birds like the myna feed on the palash and aid in cross pollination, according to the botanist.
All these places where trees blossom during spring time gives a healthy and eye-comfort feel to early joggers and a routine headache for municipal safari karmacharis. #KhabarLive #hydnews
