INDIAN DEVIL TREE

INDIAN DEVIL TREE

• Scientific Name:Alstonia Scholaris
• Sanskrit name:Saptha parna (Leaves 5-7 in a whirl), Saptacchada, sharada, Vishama chada
• Malayalam:Yakshippala,Daiva pala,ezhilam pala,pala
• English:Indian Devil tree

                                                            The flowers of this tree will fell down from the tree within hours. The wood of the tree is used to make slates in some countries. The flowering months are November -October.

                                             Ezhilam pala, the name itself makes one to think of ‘Yakshi’, is a moderate to large sized evergreen tree which grows up to 30 m in height. The leaves come out in whorls of seven, elliptic-oblong, obtuse and petiolate, flowers small greenish white, found in umbellate cymes, fruits follicles about 50 cm long, contain papillose seeds with hairs on each ends. The blooms are associated with very strong aroma. The soft wood is used for manufacturing packing cases, match sticks, black boards, pencils etc.

                                                            Ezhilam pala is a common tree in Kerala. It filled our yakshi stories with its great fragrance. It became a common element to our poets. I am also curious to take some images of this plant and its amazing flowers. In my memory these flowers were formed like a carpet in front of the 'Sarpa kavu' of the temple. Its smell with the smell of turmeric and salt made a great mix. There were some manjadi seeds behind the sarpa kavu to add a different hue to the picture.

                                                                Flower of Pala tree from Vyttila. These trees are from the compound of Shiva subrahmanya temple, vyttila. These small white flowers filled the area with great smell.

Its very interensting to know more about the flowers with this peculiar smell. More detailed description of its name in Sanskrit from this site. These flowers had their roles in Kalidasa kavyas.

Some malayalam film song which mentioned 'palapoo'