India GOTrees of Jaipur
Dhok (axlewood)
Its wood is reckoned among the toughest in the world and was the standard fuel and tool-handle timber of the Aravalli villages; the dried fallen leaves are still collected as winter fodder for goats. In Jhalana it forms over 80 per cent of the tree cover, growing in near-pure stands on the mid-slopes.
Anogeissus pendula
Khejri
In 1730 at Khejarli, 26 km south-east of Jodhpur, Amrita Devi and her three daughters were killed refusing to let khejri trees be felled for the Maharaja's palace; 363 Bishnois died with them. Green khejri twigs are worshipped at home on Janmashtami, and the green pods, sangri, are one of the five vegetables of the Rajasthani dish panchkuta. Around Jaipur the tree is deliberately left standing in the middle of ploughed fields.
Prosopis cineraria
Flame of the forest (palash)
The flowers were the original source of yellow-orange Holi colour before synthetic powders, boiled down into the dye called tesu. In Sanskrit texts the tree is palash, the wood used for sacrificial fire. In Jhalana it grows gregariously where the valleys open out and flatten, so whole patches of the reserve catch fire at once.
Butea monosperma
Bougainvillea
Jaipur was painted terracotta pink in 1876 for the visit of the Prince of Wales, and the magenta of bougainvillea against that wash has been the city's visual signature ever since.
Bougainvillea glabra
Aak (Sodom Apple)
Although it is a wasteland plant, its flowers are offered to Shiva, which is why you find aak growing at the back of shrines and being sold in temple flower baskets. In Rajasthan it is one of the first plants to colonise bare sand.
Calotropis procera
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