Guest Tree

Kleinhovia hospita

Beng: Bola

A mid-sized evergreen tree with bushy growth habit, broad, heart-shaped leaves, bearing small pink flowers during the latter part of the rains or just after

Bark: pale brown and often bears several knobby excrescences

Leaf:  large (3-8’’), broadly oval or heart-shaped, and are borne alternatively on rather long stalks.

Flowers: small, bright pink, arranged in drooping large, branched clusters from the end of the branches

Fruit: hollow, papery bladder with 5 lobes, in clusters

Season: The tree retains its leaves almost throughout the year, and during the cold weather is, as a rule, partially covered with a delicate tracery of old flower stalks, to which the curious inflated pods are an added ornament. The flowers appear intermittently from May to November, but principally in August and September. The new leaves open in February or March and the branches are sometimes almost bare for a short period before their arrival.

Range/habitat: East & southeast Asia, at abandoned clearings, grassland, and secondary forest at elevations up to 200 meters. Introduced in India

Trivia and notes:

a) Introduced in India (Kolkata) by British from the Maluku Islands (eastern Indonesia, then called Dutch East Indies) in 1798.

b) Both the species name (hospita) and common English name (Guest tree) is probably due to well-known hospitality of Kleinhoff, the Dutch (German?) botanist in whose honor the tree was named!

Where to Find: There are a few in Rabindra sarobar. The one here is from the southeast side of the lake. While entering from the BRC side, after some 200 meter there is a bifurcation. This tree is on the left road, on the left just 16 steps ahead. GPS: 22.50933,88.35744