India GOTrees of bangalore
Indian sandalwood
The state tree of Karnataka and the reason Mysore became a sandalwood name. For most of the twentieth century every sandalwood tree in Karnataka belonged to the state even when it stood in a private garden; the law was relaxed so that growers could own and sell their own trees.
Santalum album
Banyan
The village banyan is the meeting tree and the tree of Shiva as teacher. At Dodda Alada Mara the original main root died of disease in the 2000s, so the tree that stands now is made entirely of its own descendants.
Ficus benghalensis
Rain tree
The tree that roofs Cubbon Park and most of Bengaluru's older avenues, planted across the city under the Mysore state horticulture programme. The storm losses of recent years have pushed the city's tree officers toward native species for new avenues.
Samanea saman
Red silk-cotton tree
The floss stuffed pillows and mattresses across South India before synthetic fibre. Lalbagh's oldest trees stand on and around the Lalbagh Rock, an outcrop of Peninsular Gneiss declared a National Geological Monument in 1975.
Bombax ceiba
Pink trumpet tree
The tree behind Bengaluru's so-called cherry blossom season, when for two or three weeks in late winter whole streets turn pale pink. The avenue planting came out of the Mysore horticulture department's nineteenth and twentieth century experiments; the pink streets are an accident of that programme, not a native season.
Tabebuia rosea
Indian laburnum (golden shower)
In Karnataka its flowering marks the last stretch of the hot season.
Cassia fistula
Sacred lotus
The state flower of Karnataka and the national flower of India. On city lakes the lotus mats matter practically as well: they are where pheasant-tailed jacanas, moorhens and bronze-winged jacanas nest.
Nelumbo nucifera
The full catalogue, hidden spots and districts on the map, plus “nearby” mode.
Open in India GO