Palash(Flame of the Forest)

Butea monosperma

Beng: Palaash/Kingshuk Hindi: Dhak

An ungainly tree with bent trunk, large trifoliate leaves with roundish leaflets, conspicuous in the early spring when masses of scarlet flowers bloom in usually leafless tree.

Bark: Thick, grey, fibrous

Leaf: Trifoliate, 3 roundish leaflets, two opposite one another and the third is larger. leathery, dark (new leaves light green)

Flower: Pea-like (but longer and narrower), orange red.

Fruit: Flattened pod thicker at the bottom

Season: In winter leaves fall and the crooked branches remain bare until in February or March they become almost covered with short clusters of orange-red flowers, though some branches often remain leafy and bare of flowers. Pods emerge immediately and look like green leaf. They mature in summer and become yellow grey in color.

Range/habitat: This tree is very common in all the hotter parts of India except the wettest and the driest areas. Tends to grow in pure strands in degraded forests. Neither common nor natural in Kolkata but are extremely common in western part of WB commonly known as jungle mahal.

Trivia and notes: This tree is an iconic flowering tree and since time immemorial poets wrote about it. As a result, in Kolkata this is more heard that seen. Not at all a good-looking tree when not in flower.

Where to Find: In the south west portion (Bengal rowing club side) there is one flame of the forest tree in the west side of the artificial pool (22.50915N, 88.35605E). Another (labelled) tree between padma pukur and Najrul mancha (towards Andersen lake complex). The latter one does not flower