Soon, the Orchid Tree will line Garden City’s roads and parks. The first batch of 100 saplings of Amherstia (Amherstia nobilis Leguminosea) has already been sent to a nursery in Mangalore.
Soon, the Orchid Tree will line Garden City’s roads and parks. The first batch of 100 saplings of Amherstia (Amherstia nobilis Leguminosea) has already been sent to a nursery in Mangalore. The state’s only nursery is in Moodbidri, 35 km from Mangalore.
“These trees can grow in weather conditions prevailing in the city and can sustain themselves in Bangalore and many other cities like Mangalore and Mysore. They are quite a hardy species. When I brought them from Myanmar (Burma) during my visit some years back, I suspected that they would never survive the heat in coastal areas, but my suspicion was proved wrong. The trees blossomed in my farm,” said LC Soans, a national award-winning botanist.
Outlining the features of the tree, Dr Soans said: “It is known as thawka-gvi in Burmese. It is cultivated for its ornamental value. The flowers are large and red with yellow spots, and are accompanied by red leaves that cascade down from the branches. This resembles a chandelier and glistens in the sunlight.”
“But it has a slight disadvantage when it came to dispersion of seeds and pollination. It has a year-long pollination process and only small birds with long beaks such as the sunbird can pollinate it. The flower has a long tube and only birds with long beaks can reach the pollen; bees cannot drop down to that depth,” he added.
A representative of a corporate landscaping company in Bangalore, Mohammad Ishaq, said: “Earlier, there were attempts to popularise this tree through the BBMP, but it failed and only a couple of trees grew in Lalbagh. They have to be planted in select places — wherever there are trees that bear large flowers and are frequented by sunbirds.”
Ishaq’s firm has also shown interest another native of Myanmar called Bauhania, which also produces bunch of red flowers.
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