INDIAN CORK TREE
Family
- Bignoniaceae
Scientific
name - Millingtonia hortensis
COMMON NAMES –
1) In English it is called the Jasmine tree.
2) In Hin) di Akas nim or Nim chameli.
3) In Bengali Minr chambeli or Cork gach.
4) In Tamil karkku.
5) In Telugu Kavuku.
GROWING AREAS:
1) It is originally originated from Burma and
Malaysia.
2) This is a tree that grows well all over India.
3) It has been grown in this country for a
very long time, and grows wild in parts of central India.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
1) It is usually planted because of its beauty
and its fast growth.
2) But it has very shallow roots and doesn’t
allow many plants to grow underneath it.
3) It is a tall, straight, evergreen tree with
dark yellowish-grey bark which is rough and cracked.
4) It has few branches but these bend down and
show off the lovely dark green leaves.
LEAVES OF THE JASMINE TREE:
1) The whole leaf is made up of small leaflets
that grow in pairs up the leaf stem and end with one single leaflet.
2) The leaves are shed gradually during early
spring, January to March, so that the tree is never bare.
FLOWERS OF THE JASMINE TREE:
1) It flowers from April to June and then
again in the autumn, September to December, which is the main flowering season.
2) The waxy looking flowers are shining white
in colour and some have patches of pink in them.
3) They have a long tubelike lower end to
which four petals are attached.
4) One of these has a deep split in it so that
it looks as if there are five petals.
5) The flowers grow in bunches on stems at the
end of the branchlets.
6) When they fall they leave the ground
carpeted in white.
FRUITS OF THE JASMINE TREE:
1) The Cork tree doesn’t produce seeds very
easily.
2) The seeds grow inside long thin seed-cases with pointed ends and each thin seed has a delicate wing.
USES OF THE JASMINE TREE:
1) The bark of the tree, which can easily be
pulled off in chunks is used to make a rather poor type of cork.
2) The wood is very soft and breaks easily.
3) It therefore often snaps off in a strong
wind, so it is not a very suitable tree to plant along roadsides.
4) The wood is used for some furniture and is
very pale yellowish-white in colour.
5) When branches break off a new stem grows again very fast, making the tree look untidy.
