Indian cork tree / Tree Jasmine

Millingtonia hortensis

Beng/Hindi: akash neem

A tall slender tree with corky bark, nearly vertical limbs, and drooping twigs. The long, tubular, white, scented flowers appear in November and December.

Bark: Thick, corky yellowish grey cracked and furrowed

Leaf: Twice and often three times feathered, 1- 1 1/2 feet long with 3-5 pairs of side stalks. The lowest pair often subdivide into sub-stalks. Leaflets 2-3 pairs and a terminal 2.5-3 cm long with wavy margins

Flower: White, delightfully scented. In large, open, sprays at the ends of the branches. The calyx is small, but the petals are joined for a great part of their length to form a long slender tube, which widens slightly near its mouth, and ends in the five spreading lobes formed by the tips of the petals. Beyond the mouth of the tube the five stamens and the lengthy style project out.

Fruit: A narrow, compressed 12’’ pod, pointed at both ends, containing numerous large, flat seeds, each almost surrounded by a fine transparent wing.

Season: Flowers in Nov-Dec and seeds ripen about March (but seeds rarely produced in Kolkata)

Range/habitat: Native of Myanmar and Malay Peninsula, introduced in India around 300 years back and now almost naturalized.

Trivia and notes: Has great capability to regenerate from root suckers, often at a considerable distance from parent tree. Extremely fast growing, especially when it grows as root sucker, often growing fifty feet in just 12 years. Susceptible to damage by storms. The trunk is often covered with the earthy tunnels of white ants.

Where to Find: One fully grown tree in Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata, on the eastern side of the Lotus pond (“paddo pukur”). GPS: 22.51252, 88.36255