Tree time again!

February in Pune is the season for cool crispy mornings, blossoming trees, and since last year, conducting tree walks for the Virasat Pune festival. Some photos of the tree walk we conducted for it this year. The kids especially enjoyed the walk so much that they told me they planned to speak about the walk in their school class.

Murud Sheng

Helicteres isora; Flowering now. Also called the Indian screw tree due to the screw shape of its fruits.  
 A medium sized tree which is found all over India. The red flowers are pollinated mainly by birds of the sunbird family. It Possess an impressive range of nutritional and medicinal properties. Fibres from the bark are used to make rope. They are also visited by many butterflies. Grey bark and alternately arranged hairy, ovate shaped leaves with serrate margins.
It is a good source of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, calcium, phosphorus and iron. Different parts of the plant are traditionally used in the indigenous medicine system to cure various ailments. The roots and the bark are used as an expectorant, demulcent, constipating and lactifuge and useful in colic, scabies, gastropathy, diabetes, diarrhoea and dysentery. The fruits are used as astringents, refrigerant, stomachachic, antispasmodic, haemostatic and vermifuge. They are useful in griping of bowels, flatulence, colic, diabetes, diarrhea and dysentery. Source (wikipedia) 

Alstonia Scholaris

Also known as Saptaparni, Satween, Blackboard tree, Indian devil tree, Ditabark, Milkwood pine, White cheesewood and so on, this is a tree native to the Indian subcontinent. Flowering around October, the white infloresence releases a heavy sweet scent into the night air.