Trees and plants of Thattekad

July 18, 2008

The most amazingly large trees that we saw in the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary in Thattekad were what were called, in Malayalam, the Chini tree. Here’s one of the tallest that we saw. The size of this tree was so awesome…here it is, soaring into the air:

Size of the Chini Tree

When I googled for the name, I realized that I had seen these trees before, at the Ta Phrom Temple in Angkor Wat..... here's the Wiki link, and I added to the Wiki, too! Here's the sign (in Malayalam) about it....all I can read of it is, "Chini" at the top! chini tree Tetrameles nudiflora thattekad 170608 sign and I just could not stop looking at the titan.. tetrameles nudiflora (cheeni tree) And to give you an idea of its size, here's Adarsh with the tree... Adarsh would be 5'10'' or so, I would think. size of the chini tree Just look at its root, (I've got Adarsh there to show the scale) root of the tree thattekad 170608 Some of the other flora we saw were beautiful, too. I loved the fractal design of this fern: fern fractal Then we came to this tree, which bears edible fruit. Karthik id'd this as BACCAUREA COURTALLENSIS; the fruit of the tree is somewhat like tamarind, and is edible: Baccaurea courtallensis tree and leaves Here's a close up of the fruit: Baccaurea courtallensis edible fruit thattekad 170608 </lj-cut> Let me close with this lovely, but un-id, wildflower that we saw: un id wildflower Plenty of other interesting flora met our eyes, but photography became impossible sometimes, with poor light and pouring rain!