Trees of Kolkata

Introduction

There is a similarity between tree identification and vocabulary development. Once we become aware of an unfamiliar word (that is, we are aware that we do not know its meaning) we tend to encounter it often. Same holds good with unknown trees. But there is also a major difference. We rarely need a dictionary to know the meaning of a word. For trees, guide book (or web resource) is essential to identify the species.

There are good guide books for urban Indian trees. “Trees of Delhi” (ToD) by Pradip Krishen (2006) is a masterpiece. Another out of print but available freely over the internet is “Trees of Calcutta and its neighborhood” (ToC). This was published in 1946 but still quite useful, especially in the context of Kolkata. I am heavily indebted to these two books and used the information I found in these books. Among online resource flowers of India is an excellent resource and so is efloraindia (I got identification help for many trees from this group). I have used a few diagrams from "Our Tree Neighbours" (1976) by Chakravarti Venkatesh, a  National Council for Educational Research & Training publication.

Both of the above books give some reference where these trees can be found (in Delhi and in Kolkata respectively). However, the precision varies.

For example, for Baheda tree (Terminalia bellirica) ToD says “… zoo has two prominent groves (one next to elephant enclosure)”. ToC says "...a good specimen can be found in Victoria Memorial Garden". Unfortunately, given the size of that garden, this is far from a precise or friendly piece of information. But technology has improved vastly in recent years and now most of us can locate precise location of an address using Google map.

How about a guide that handholds a fellow tree lover through a city park or an avenue?

Of course, One option is to label the trees. Though effective in a way, I find this works as a dictionary. You have encountered an interesting tree and are curious to know its name. This is a most conventional approach, and definitely meets a need. When I started this site back in 2018, labelling of trees in Rabindra Sarobar was at its infancy. Now (2023) it has improved to some extent. Zoo and Agri Horticulture gardens are much better in this respect (and the latter is best among the three). 

Second option is to prepare checklist of trees for a park or avenue with a roughly "where to find" note. This fulfills another need of knowing what trees to expect in and area and perhaps as an aid to plan a short DIY tree walk. "PLANT WEALTH OF THE RAJ BHAVAN" is a good resource of this type.

My idea is to take one step further by give precise directions and/or google map locations, may be even using step count and showing photographs of the individual tree (with a bit of surroundings).

And now I have proof that it works. One lady mailed me saying that she could spots all but two trees in Victoria that I listed (and those two I had mistakes in location!)

From my college days I have been trying to identify trees. Never a major hobby, but over the decades I thought I must have been already familiar with an overwhelmingly majority of the urban trees. So in 2017 I started to identify the “small handful” that I would not be knowing in Dhakuria lake area, Kolkata, officially known as "Rabindra sarobar", which is close to my home. While doing so, I understood the true meaning of the age old adage “you do not know what you do not know”. 

For every new identification a few known unknowns (that is, I recognize that I do not know them) cropped up begging for identification!

Let Rabindra Sarobar be my first area of pampering my passion for my beloved green companions. I have an ambition to add a few other public parks later (like Maidan, Victoria Memorial, Zoo, Jadavpur University, Agri Horticulture garden etc.). As of now (2024), I have covered Victoria memorial and just started with Zoo.

In general 

1) Site section lists specimen trees in a site (e.g. Victoria Memorial Ground). You'll find a short text which will give cue where the tree is located, the key identification features. This will follow by a very brief description of the tree.

2) A picture of that tree, sometimes showing some surrounding landmarks 

3) In most cases I have given the latitude and longitude (that is, Google map location) which can be used to get direction from Google map. All you need to do is to click the GPS information link and google map will do the rest!

4) species section of the site is organized based of leaf types. For each leaf type, the species are listed in the order of how commonly they are found (that is common to rare). So, unless you have come across a very rare tree, chances are high it will be listed within the first few of that leaf type. Each tree usually has a common English name, scientific name (in italics font), collage picture and a short description. I am slowly adding a  "more..." link which will take you to a more detailed description of the tree. I recommend you doing a google search using the tree name / scientific name, especially where I am yet to add detailed description.

5) In the gallery section there are tree pictures with caption. here the main aim is to showcase the beauty of the trees.

Once we become familiar with a tree, we can identify it in various ways, sometime even from a long distance. Our identification cue may vary from tree to tree, on season and on our perception. It can be overall shape of the tree, color of the leaves, shape of its trunk, color & texture of its bark, and of course its flowers and fruits in case the tree is flowering or fruiting. For the trees that have strongly scented flowers, sometime we can identify them from far from the scent of their flowers. 

Leaves are quite handy to narrow down the options while identifying trees for the first time. A per the book Trees of Delhi, there are 10 basic categories, out of which we are concerned with 9 (as we will not cover palms). As feather compound leaves are more common, I have split them into two categories with and without terminal leaflet. So we too will have 10 leaf types.

With these basic information lets proceed to enter the Dhakuria Lake from the Dhakuria side.

you can send me your feedback and help me to identify the remaining trees!

My mail id is demukher and I am available at gmail.com. Picture courtesy (for some of the good looking images)  Sukanta Sinha who is an award winning photographer and accompanies in some of my tree spotting expeditions. Kuntal Narayan Chaudhury, who is a professor in Botany, is helping me with identification of many trees and as well as being botanically right (but I am solely responsible for the content). Rest of the pictures are from my point and shoot camera and some even from my mobile. I'll try slowly replacing the low resolution pictures. Babu Suresh is helping me with the graphics/design. . The site is very much under construction, so apologies in advance.