This beautiful tree is a frequent sight in India, be it on the sidewalks, parks or forests. But surprisingly this tree is not indigenous to India. Gulmohar was brought to India by the British people in 1800s from the island of Madagascar, the heart of natural flora and fauna.
During summers, the tree has almost no leaves but is adorned by beautiful and vibrant red flowers. The tree of ‘Palas’ is known as the flame of the forest but with its lovely flowers, this tree too looks as if it were on fire.
A very peculiar feature of the flowers of this tree is that among the 5 petals that it has, one is always different. It is a shade of very light yellow fading into white at the periphery with frequent reddish pigmentation all along. Why it is so is unexplained, but in reality, it is the contrasting nature of the petal that makes the flower look even more lovely.
After summer comes monsoon and brings with it the wonderful rains. Just after the first few showers, this tree puts up yet another stunning display. The flowers are all shed due to the hammering of the raindrops and splay along the ground beneath the tree, a spectacular sight. It is impossible to see it and not feel anything. Somehow, even such a simple departure of the flowers to lay down that red carpet the welcome the monsoon captures your heart.
Gulmohar is not an exotic flower but is still one of my favourites because of its subtle and graceful beauty. There is nothing that decorates summer as beautifully as the Gulmohar does and its one of the main reasons why I look forward to the otherwise terrible season. Now that Monsoon is here, it is time to bid Gulmohar farewell for this year. But before I say my final goodbyes to it, I wanted to write a post on it so that everyone comes to know what a beauty the Gulmohar tree is, the tree we otherwise hardly notice.
P.S: Facts in the post are from my 8th standard textbook which i had read almost 8-9yrs back. 😛
thegalwiththefairydust 