India GO
Aak (Sodom Apple)
आक / मदार
A grey-green shrub of roadsides, field margins, waste ground and bare sand. Its waxy purple-and-white flowers are among the few things in bloom through the hottest months.
How to recognise it
Thick, felted, pale leaves in opposite pairs, and star-shaped flowers with five waxy lobes. Break a leaf and it bleeds white latex, which is how you tell it from anything else.
Where to see it
Jaipur
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.
Sambhar Salt Lake · Jhalana Leopard Reserve (often) · Nahargarh Biological Park (often)
Pushkar
Aak flowers are offered to Shiva, so a plant that grows on waste ground ends up in the temple flower baskets, and in Pushkar you will see both uses within a few hundred metres of each other. In Rajasthan it is one of the first plants to colonise bare sand.
Pushkar Sand Dunes · Naga Pahar (Snake Mountain) (often)