Dhakuria Lake(South-East)

The T junction with the tar road that comes from lake garden side the starting point of this zone (there is a ground with many cement benches, see below). If you extrapolate this road towards the lake, close to the water there is a Freshwater Mangrove Tree (Hijal) that we have see in North East section. I believe this tree has been wrongly labelled as fish Poison Tree. 

From here we will continue on the pavement that is in between the tar road and the path which is adjacent to the water. After walking 10 steps or so, across the tar road you will find large leafed or Honduras Mahogany. It is at the corner of the ground that has lots of benches. 

Continue walking for 55 steps on your left you will find a large wild almond tree. We covered this in North east section but this is much larger.

Another 18 steps and on your left you will find a large red sandalwood tree (GPS: 22.51037N,88.36054E). Leaves are double feathered.

The next tree is a semul tree (you can see its buttressed trunk just next to the red sandalwood tree picture above). Last three tress are one after other and there are no other trees in between.

After semul, cross the tar road and continue walking along the right side of the tar road. If you continue for 78 steps, on your right you will find a young Hickory Wattle Tree (GPS: 22.51035N,88.36147E), a very rare cousin of much more common Earpod Wattle that we covered in North-East section. Leaves are somewhat similar to Earpod wattle but much wider and unlike earpod wattle is not crescent shaped .

The next interesting tree is quite far away (110 step ahead) on the left side of Tar road. This is Bahera Tree (GPS: 22.51037N, 88.36054E), a large tree of Indian forests. This tree looks somewhat similar to Mahua, but the leaves are wider. And like Mahua, it has all the merits of a good avenue tree but is seldom planted.

35 Steps from Bahera, on your left you will find a large Teak tree (GPS: 22.5105,88.3621) with large and very rough leaves. It is natural mostly in south Indian forests where it becomes dominant tree (like Sal in many north Indian forest). It is widely planted as a timber tree.

44 steps further, on your left you will find a Spanish Mahogany tree, slightly leaning towards the road. We covered this in the North east side but this one is also a handsome specimen.

45 steps from Teak on your left there is a large Karanj tree. This is with smooth bark which is normal. The one we encountered in the north-west side of lake had worts.

8 & 24 steps from the Karanj tree you will find two small silky oak or silver oak (Grevillea robusta) trees on your right at the edge of the playground (GPS: 22.5102,88.36316). These exotic trees from Australia are  quite young and will grow much taller.

Another 15 steps from the second Silky oak, there is a young (update 2024 Aug, it can no longer be called a young tree, grown almost 30 feet!) exotic tree from Madagascar, called  Madagascar Almond Tree (Terminalia neotaliala) with it peculiar whorled arrangement of branches. GPS: 22.51012,88.36306 More details about this tree here.

17 steps from the Madagascar Almond Tree, 10-12 feet inside the ground there is a small tree or rather a shrub. This is called ulot kambal (Abroma augusta) in Bengali and Hindi and Devil's cotton in English. This shrub bear two distinct types of leaves, some are lobed others are elongated egg shaped.

Close to the Devil's cotton, 6 steps along the road there is a young badminton ball tree growing along with a wild almond tree. Badminton ball tree leaves are somewhat similar to Gulmohur, however the number of side stalks and leaflets are much more and leaflets are tinier and more closely set. The common name is from its flower head that look like sponge ball that is used in a variety of badminton game.