Exuberance of Gulmohar sans Bhopal streets

Heat of summer is cutting across Madhya Pradesh. It is going through Nautapa - nine days of maximum heat which started from May 25. Though parts of the state did receive some showers on the first day of nautapa, but in Bhopal it was just overcast clouds, followed by hot two days but a pleasant evening, when showers lashed Bhopal last Monday, bringing down the temperature.

In the summer of Bhopal leaves of the trees dry down, water gets in short supply, temperature variates but one thing which appeals you is the ‘smile of little Gulmohar’, encountering the heat, adding solace to one who looks at them. You will get to see these red colour flowers on the Gulmohar trees, showcasing their exuberance on the streets of Bhopal. Whether its VIP road or Charimli or Arera Colony you will get fair chance to see these red flowers. Interestingly ‘Gulmohar’ an area in Bhopal has lesser trees as compared to others, may be thy have the name!
Gulmohar remains for several weeks in the city and has exuberant cluster of red coloured flowers normally four to five in numbers. Its elegant wide-spreading umbrella-like canopy adds to its exuberance. The delicate, fern-like leaves are composed of small individual leaflets, which fold up at the onset of dusk. Flowers of India website states that this was discovered in early 19th century by botanist Wensel Bojer and is botanically called as ‘Delonix regia’ !

For people like us, Gulmohar is natural to India and mainly cultivated as a street tree which brings a breathe of freshness in dry heat of the summer adding to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote (1844) ‘Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world’.

Contributed by Anil Gulati