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Red silk-cotton tree
सेमल (semal)
A tall straight tree with a thorny grey trunk that flowers scarlet on bare branches in late winter, then fills the air with cotton in April.
👀 How to recognise it
Big cup-shaped red flowers, fleshy and full of nectar, on a leafless tree — and the ground beneath littered with them. Parakeets, mynas and squirrels feed there all day.
Where to see it
Bengaluru
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.
Lalbagh Botanical Garden · Cubbon Park (often)
Delhi
In February and March a single flowering semal in a Delhi park will hold parakeets, mynas, treepies, squirrels and bulbuls at once: the easiest bird-watching in the city.
Sunder Nursery (in season) · Lodhi Garden (in season) · Aravalli Biodiversity Park (in season)
Agra
One of the best trees in an Indian city for watching birds: in February and March a single flowering semal will hold a dozen species at once.
Keoladeo Ghana National Park (Bharatpur) (in season) · Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary (Keetham Lake) (in season) · Taj Nature Walk (in season)
Chandigarh
One of the best trees in an Indian city for watching birds: in February and March a single flowering semal will hold a dozen species at once.
Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary (in season) · Morni Hills and Tikkar Taal (in season) · Leisure Valley (in season)