Lantana domestic and wild weed!

While going to the farm over last and this year, we have found a huge invasion of
Lantana in the village. They are tall and massive bushes which are almost impenetrable along the road leading into the farm. The flowers are very colourful and the farmers dont seem to mind it being around. However I have just done a story on how invasive a weed it is unless controlled and it can be detrimental to herbivores as it overtakes the landscape and does not allow grasses and native species to grow.

I also saw huge areas in the jungles of Bandipur and Nagarhole when we went on a jungle safari on the Serai Kabini trip.Both the jungles are over run with the weed which prob keep the birds happy with their fruit but def d not allow grasses to grow under them.

Funnily enough the domesticated variety is very pretty but not that hardy. I redid the balcony plants recently for Davids wedding and Bonny bought me the most delightful domesticated purple variety and a really breathtaking yellow one with variegated leaves.

Check my pics!

Pochampalli Exotica!

Suddenly with the first rains two pots in the garden have sprouted these beautiful leaves while the second leaf is in waiting- like a little flute fixed to the side. I was given a few bulbs by a friend from Hyderabad probably 8 years ago and year after year the plant sprouts its leaves at this time with the first April showers!

Sending off the picture to a tree group that I belong to, a Neil Soares got back telling me that it was called the Kaempferia pulchra. That sounds like Greek to most of us so I asked neil again for the common name and this is what he said - " Have no interest in Exotics & Garden plants but anyway it is the Pretty Resurrection Lily."

For me that was looking at the plant differently, as just today in church we were told that this is Holy Week leading upto Easter! And with Easter comes the resurrection of a crucified Christ as we believe.

However I do like to think of the plant as the Pochampalli plant because I did get it from Hyderabad and the markings on the leaf do look like the Ikkat weave.And the person who gave it to me called it that!!

In a few days, once more leaves appear, beautiful mauve flowers will bloom amidst the leaves and make the plant a stunning sight to behold.

The strange Bamboo flower!

While on a recent fam tour of the Serai Kabini I saw the Bamboo in flower really close. Its been months since I noticed it on our trips through Mysore to the jungles of Nagahole and Bandipur. All the Bamboo are this strange goldy colour, and look dead from a distance.

Apparently in the past, when the bamboo flowered it meant there was going to be a famine and this has been believed by the people of the NE and Burma.
According to a scientific journal http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/feb102002/261.pdf this is a common occurrence among grasses. They flower profusely and die. Whole clumps just wither away leaving many species of animals who depend on the bamboo for food like elephants and Pandas starving.

One little clump can produce pounds of seeds, as much as 800 to 1000 in an ounce which causes a population explosion in rodents like rats. They multiply in huge numbers and feed on the seeds. Once the rains come and the seeds germinate the rats have nothing to eat, so enter neighbouring farms and fields and decimate the crops.

The famine of 1862 in Mizoram is well documented. It was in Mizoram in the '70's that the rat population exploded to 2.5 million. Since they follow the slash and burn style of cultivation farmers are exposed to rodents destroying their crops since their farms are in the midst of bamboo clumps.

Tabebuia Rosea makes Bangalore breath taking!

When we were kids the Jacaranda and the Gulmohur along with the pink Accacia brougth colour and beauty to Bangalore city. Minsk Square particularly was a haze of purple/blue blossoms and Cavalry Road was lit up with the Gulmohur along the army barracks and the RSI. Now with the Metro killing off large numbers of these trees we suddenly find we are not alone! We are not left bereft in a Bangalore where the citizens love trees and realise the value of a green canopy.

So, instead, the trees have shifted focus and are flowering in their element according to Steven my son on the National Games Village Road in Koramangala and on the ITPL main road among other roads in the newer areas of the city.

For the first time my grumbles about the BBMP and the corporation merciless hacking of our Jacaranda and other trees was silenced when I saw these new beauties in bloom. Tall and majestic the trees are clearly over 30 metres tall and are apparently the national tree of El Salvadore!

Long live our exotic imports, they are bringing back the colour of Bangalore. By the way they are quite different from the pink cherry you find all over Europe and the UK. Those are breath taking as well and I have loaded a pic of the flower to show the difference.

Delicious Flags!

A friend sent me this by email and I just had to load some of the 'flags' on my blog! They really are awesome and true works of art!
Check out my favs - Indonesia which was really what we ate every single day,
Italy - though I ate pizza not pasta in Italy!
India is brilliant, totally us!
Vietnam was what I indulged in, in Bangkok - all that fabulous fruit and the
Japanese flag was simple and so clean, just that bit of Salmon!
The Oz flag was a lot of work and is especially up for my sister and friends in Perth!
Anyone know what the Chinese flag has in it?!
And of course the French one is a little 'thanda' with no wine added to the flag, but maybe the grapes symbolize the wine!

Love Apples or Water Apples!

As kids we never enjoyed these luscious looking fruit as they are truly just full of water and no flavour. There is a woman on MG Road who sits with a basket of the white ones, selling them rather expensively and passers by not knowing the fruit, buy them. I have seen her handling only the white ones,never the red.

The other day while going to see Mum in the convent where she lives we were stunned with two bushes full of the red fruit. I guess the nuns either make a pickle of them or a juice, however the trees were full of fruit, so I wondered if they just left them on the tree for the birds like we do with the cherries in Hoskote.

Tabebuia Argentea in bloom!

The gorgeous Tabebuia Argentea dripping with golden blooms is in all her glor y on the pavement outside our home. Fifteen years or so ago, I got a sapling from the Forest Department for free and Dave, Andy and myself planted the tree. It could not have been more than 3 feet tall and we put a few coochas around it and some barbed wire to prevent the milkmans cows from eating up the leaves as the tree grew.

It has been difficult to keep the tree standing as we have the next door owner of the building near our house who believes trees block the view of the building! Have had to phone frantically for the forest department time and time again when he has tried to cut down the trees.

Once I had Steven my youngest call me frantically while I was in the office in Deccan Herald say, come fast old Satya Murthy has men with ropes and saw ready to bring down the tree.

Then like a loud fish wife I have stood hand on my hips and yelled the road down and called the forest department to fine him. Its a day to day affair to save trees in Bangalore, but I will not give up.

Look at the beauty of the tree during this season, worth all the effort of fighting and keeping her standing for the month when the blooms are out in full force saying thank you to us!