A FLOWER INSIDE A FLOWER

A FLOWER INSIDE A FLOWER

The credit for the title of this blog goes to a friend whom I had sent images of this rare flower of the Elephant Apple Tree. The friend replied, Wow, it looks like “A Flower inside a Flower” and indeed, it is.

The tree is currently blooming in the beautiful 400-acre wooded campus of the Indian Institute of Science, IISc, Bangalore.

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Presenting to you a Botanical Wonder - THE ELEPHANT APPLE TREE flower.

Botanical Name:  Dillenia indica. 

The Tree is native to India.

Elephant Apple is an evergreen large shrub or small to medium-sized tree growing to 15 m tall.

The leaves are 15-36 cm long, with a conspicuously corrugated surface with impressed veins, like potato chips.

The magnolia like fragrant flowers are large, up to 5 inches across, with five white petals and numerous yellow stamens. Flowers arise solitary at the ends of the twigs, facing downward. The sepals are rounded and yellowish green. Flower pollinators are birds and bees.

 

The tree blooms during June/July, and then bears fruit from October to December.

 

Postal Stamp by Indian Post - Elephant Apple Tree Flower 

Issued in 2006

                                                 

Common name: Elephant Apple, Indian catmon, Hondapara Tree, Ma-tad

Kannada – Betta Kanagalu - Hindi: चलता Chalta, Karambel • Sanskrit: Avartaki •Bengali – Chalta, Marathi – Karmal, Malayalam – Chilta, Tamil – Uva/Kurukatti Telugu – Uva.

 

The fruit of the tree is much sought after by elephants, hence the name, Elephant Apple Tree.

 

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