A walk to know our tree neighbors

Location – St Martin Street, Beach road, Pondicherry

With the help of field guide from Trees of Pondicherry, I and my colleagues embarked on a tree walk at Pondicherry. We covered the St Martin street at the east of boulevard covering 200m stretch street covering 9 different tree species.

Geo marked location of the street

Following are the trees identified on Tree Walk #1

Common name	Tamil name
1. Fish poison tree / shaving brush	Unknown
2. Alexandrian laurel	புன்னை மரம்
3. Golden shower	கொன்றை
4. Spanish cherry	மகிழம் பூ
5. Indian Beech	புங்கமரம்
6. Flamboyant / Gulmohar	செம்மயிற்கொன்றை
7. Cassod Tree	மஞ்சள் கொன்றை
8. Indian Cork Tree	–
9. Devil Tree	–

Field guide by Trees of Pondicherry

Top 50 Trees of Pondicherry is a comprehensive field guide created by Vigneshwaran, Gayatri and their team. It aims to document and map trees located in the boulevard region with greater details. Such as Flowering period, what each tree attracts (bats, insects, moths etc.,) size, edibility, and their distribution across boulevard region.

image of field guide

From field

There was a lot of curiosity seen with all of them who participated in the walk, because in my case I have often ignored trees and never paid much attention to them. All I knew about trees names are the famous and common ones such as Neem, Banyan, Tamarind, Palm, etc., This happened to be a great and opportunity to get to know my tree neighbors.

Gowthama, a colleague of mine hosted the walk. My other colleagues from Azim Premji Foundation too joined. We spent a good amount of time with each tree discussing and getting know their common and Tamil names, their origin (if they are native or non native), checking on flowers and their smell, tree structure (bark color, crown, trunk), checking if the fruits are edible. We spent 45 mins in a small street with less than 200m stretch covering 9 different tree species.

What’s next

1. We curious to know the native and non native trees presence in the streets. May be after the next walk we will document and present their presence distinctly.
2. Knowing just names is not enough. We tend forget their names eventually. For example, I distinctly remember Fish Poison Tree (Other name Shaving Brush Tree) because it’s flower resembles a actual shaving brush. Such unique aspects of a tree helped me to remember it’s name very well. So aiming to figure out a way to remember the trees and their names by associating and understanding its distinct features.

About host

Gowthama is a naturalist and teacher educator. His work can explored at his blog Creatikaa