More on Trees

The Indian Almond

2) The Indian Almond: 

This tree is also known as Natvadom in Tamil and the botanical name for this is erminalia catappa. It is quite a favourite backyard tree in Chennai homes. It is a large deciduous tree with large dark green leaves, narrow near the base, broad in the middle, and at the apex as the two halves of the leaf meet it forms a small break. While still green, the leaves are collected and stitched together by using small pieces split halves of broomsticks (of yesteryears) to make excellent dining plates. As they grow old the leaves turn reddish in colour, twice in the year in February and September, creating a grand sight for Chennaiites who are denied the delights of distinct seasonal changes.

The fruits are oval in shape, with the two rims pressing against each other providing a good home for the seed. When young, the fruit is green in colour, but as it ripens, the pericarp (the outer layer) develops an attractive red-rose colour. The pericarp encloses a fleshy pulp which in turn covers a hard shell, inside which is the seed. Children relish the slightly sweetish taste of the pulp and often take a bite at it. On reaching the hard shell, they break it open to get at the seed. It has a badam like taste, hence its popular name.

The Indian almond tree is not a deep rooter. As your eyes roam down the grey smooth trunk to its base, you will find that it is supported by a number of radiating , woody buttress roots. All in all, the tree is grown more for its dense dark green foliage than for any other purpose. The tree serves as an excellent resting place for crows and for playful jaunts of squirrels.

3) The Karuveppilai tree:

This is also known as the curry leaf tree, and is in the botanist's language Murraya Koenigii. It belongs to the citrus family and like all its other members, the leaves are studded with oil glands, the source of the pleasant aroma that they exhale. You can see these oil glands clearly if you look at the leaf held against the sun. The oil that these glands produce is a class of oil called essential oils, which are volatile, that is, they vapourise even at the atmospheric temperatures. This fragrance is much appreciated by south Indians and so a dash of these leaves are added to the sambar and rasam, part of the daily cuisine in our homes. The first thing that we become aware of even as the items are put on the dining table is the aroma of the Karuveppilai. In summer nothing refreshes you like a glass of butter milk laced with a pinch of salt and a few leaflets of the Karuveppilai to lend it fragrance.

As I write this piece, I recall the words of a friend of mine many years ago, Dr.Mu.Va, a great Tamil scholar. He used to liken teachers to Karuveppilai. He used to say that a teacher is remembered for the flavour he added to the lessons. After the contents are consumed, the curry leaves are spat out. So also the teacher is also forgotten as soon as the student settles down in life. The teacher gave him the temporary fragrance to the substance that he consumed, digested and grew upon. Sometimes I tend to agree with this, but often when an old student of mine tells me that he is in a good position, thanks to his having studied under me, I am overwhelmed to know that the fragrance lingered. Yes, even if it is spat out, the student still remembers the smell, no matter how faintly.

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The dry leaves of this plant, when they are fried and powdered and laced with a pinch of salt and chilli powder, makes a very good dish. This preparation is often served to nursing mothers in order to improve their appetite, so that they grow stronger and sustain the support that they are obliged to offer to the infant.

The leaves are also used as medicine in case of diarrhoea and dysentery and for checking vomiting also. The juice of the roots are used for seeking relief from renal pains.

The tree also bears flowers and fruits, but they are not of interest to us in the context in which we are talking about it. Obviously, Karuveppilai is a native of south India. In north India, cinnamon leaves are used in the place of the Karuveppilai.