India GOTrees of Kolkata
Banyan
The Great Banyan sits inside the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, run by the Botanical Survey of India. Its original trunk was removed after lightning and fungus, so what stands is held up entirely by its own prop roots. The tree is thought to have been planted around 1787, and its crown now measures roughly 486 metres around.
Ficus benghalensis
Shiuli (night-flowering jasmine)
The state flower of West Bengal, and the smell Kolkata associates with the approach of Durga Puja: the flowers open after dark and are gathered off the ground at first light, when they are already falling.
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis
Gulmohar (flame tree)
In Bengali the gulmohar is krishnachura, “Krishna's crest”. It is planted along Kolkata's roads in deliberate pairs with the yellow radhachura, and the two flower together through the hottest weeks.
Delonix regia
Radhachura (copper pod)
In Bengali it is radhachura, «Radha's crest», to the gulmohar's krishnachura; the pair is planted together along Kolkata roads.
Peltophorum pterocarpum
Chatim (devil's tree)
The state tree of West Bengal and the tree of Santiniketan, where a chatim leaf is handed to each graduating student. Its autumn scent is heavy enough to fill a whole street at night.
Alstonia scholaris
Jackfruit
Unripe jackfruit (enchor) is cooked as a vegetable in Bengali kitchens and is often called “vegetarian mutton” for its texture; the ripe fruit is eaten fresh in the hot months.
Artocarpus heterophyllus
Peepal (sacred fig)
The tree the Buddha sat under, and the tree Krishna names as himself among trees in the Bhagavad Gita. Peepals are almost never felled, which is why the biggest trees in an Indian city are usually this species.
Ficus religiosa
Sacred lotus
Each Durga Puja needs 108 lotuses for the Sandhi Puja, at the junction of the festival's eighth and ninth days, and on that day West Bengal's demand reaches about ten million flowers; in most years at least 30 per cent come from other states.
Nelumbo nucifera
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