Ashoka tree | |
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Ashoka flower cluster | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Fabaceae |
Genus: | Saraca |
Species: | S. asoca |
Binomial name | |
Saraca asoca | |
Synonyms [2] | |
Saraca asoca, commonly known as the ashoka tree (lit. "sorrow-less"), is a plant belonging to the Detarioideae subfamily of the Fabaceae family of plants (also referred to as the legume, pea, or bean family). [3]
The tree is native to the Indian subcontinent, with its native range extending from Pakistan to the west, through India and Bangladesh to Myanmar in the east, and from Bhutan and Nepal in the north to Sri Lanka in the south. Within its native range, it is primarily growing in seasonally dry tropical forests. [4]
It is an important tree to multiple cultural traditions across the Indian subcontinent and beyond.
The flower of ashoka tree is the state flower of Indian state of Odisha. [5]
The ashoka is a rain-forest tree. Its original distribution was in the central areas of the Deccan plateau, as well as the middle section of the Western Ghats in the western coastal zone of the Indian subcontinent.
The ashoka is prized for its beautiful foliage and fragrant flowers. It is a handsome, small, erect evergreen tree, with deep green leaves growing in dense clusters.
Its flowering season is around February to April. The ashoka flowers come in heavy, lush bunches. They are bright orange-yellow in color, turning red before wilting.
As a wild tree, the ashoka is a vulnerable species. It is becoming rarer in its natural habitat, but isolated wild ashoka trees are still to be found in the foothills of the central and eastern Himalayas, in scattered locations of the northern plains of India as well as on the west coast of the subcontinent near Mumbai.[ citation needed ]
There are a few varieties of the ashoka tree. One variety is larger and highly spreading. The columnar varieties are common in cultivation.
The ashoka tree is used as a traditional medicinal plant. [6] It is considered sacred throughout the Indian subcontinent, especially in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. This tree has many folklorical, religious and literary associations in the region. Highly valued as well for its handsome appearance and the color and abundance of its flowers, the ashoka tree is often found in royal palace compounds and gardens as well as close to temples throughout India. [7]
The ashoka tree is closely associated with the yakshi mythological beings. One of the recurring elements in Indian art, often found at gates of Buddhist and Hindu temples, is the sculpture of a yakshini with her foot on the trunk and her hands holding the branch of a flowering ashoka tree. As an artistic element, often the tree and the yakshi are subject to heavy stylization. Some authors hold that the young girl at the foot of this tree is based on an ancient tree deity related to fertility. [8]
Yakshis under the ashoka tree were also important in early Buddhist monuments as a decorative element and are found in many ancient Buddhist archaeological sites. With the passing of the centuries the yakshi under the ashoka tree became a standard decorative element of Hindu Indian sculpture and was integrated into Indian temple architecture as salabhanjika, because there is often a confusion between the ashoka tree and the sal tree (Shorea robusta) in the ancient literature of the Indian subcontinent. [9]
In Hinduism the ashoka is considered a sacred tree. Not counting a multitude of local traditions connected to it, the ashoka tree is worshipped in Chaitra, [10] a month of the Hindu calendar. [10] It is also associated with Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love, who included an ashoka blossom among the five flowers in his quiver, where ashoka represent seductive hypnosis. [11] Hence, the ashoka tree is often mentioned in classical Indian religious and amorous poetry, having at least sixteen different names in Sanskrit referring to the tree or its flowers. [12]
In Mahākāvya, or Indian epic poetry, the ashoka tree is mentioned in the Ramayana in reference to the Ashoka Vatika (garden of ashoka trees) where Hanuman first meets Sita.
The ashoka tree is sometimes incorrectly known as Saraca indica . [13]
A popular tree known as "false ashoka tree" or even as "ashoka tree", Polyalthia longifolia , is cultivated to resemble the growth pattern of erect pillar-like Mediterranean cypress trees. It is a popular park and garden plant, much used in landscaping on the Indian subcontinent, known also as Devadaar or Debdaru. This tree can easily be distinguished by its simple leaves and very different flowers. Ashoka flowers are red (initially orange in color) while P. longifolia flowers are apple green in color. Ashoka fruits look like broad beans containing multiple seeds while false ashoka fruits are small, spherical and contain only one seed. Ashoka trees are small in height, while false ashoka is taller.
Shorea robusta, the sal tree, sāla, shala, sakhua, or sarai, is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The tree is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and across the Himalayan regions.
Yakshinis or Yakshis are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from Devas and Asuras and Gandharvas or Apsaras. Yakshinis and their male counterparts, the Yakshas, are one of the many paranormal beings associated with the centuries-old sacred groves of India. Yakshis are also found in the traditional legends of Northeastern Indian tribes, ancient legends of Kerala, and in the folktales of Kashmiri Muslims. Sikhism also mentions yakshas in its sacred texts.
Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla, from the Sanskrit आमलकी (āmalakī), is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. Its native range is tropical and southern Asia.
The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Karimganj district, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom whose war elephant forces led the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India. Some historians have identified Gangaridai with other parts of India. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers act as a geographic marker of the region, but also connects the region to the broader Indian subcontinent. Bengal, at times, has played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
Saraca L. is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae of about 20 plant species of trees native to the lands from India and Sri Lanka to Indochina, southern China Malesia, and New Guinea.
Saffron is a shade of yellow or orange, the colour of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived. The hue of the spice saffron is primarily due to the carotenoid chemical crocin.
The subfamily Detarioideae is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae (legumes). This subfamily includes many tropical trees, some of which are used for timber or have ecological importance. The subfamily consists of 84 genera, most of which are native to Africa and Asia. Pride of Burma and tamarind are two of the most notable species in Detarioideae. It has the following clade-based definition:
The most inclusive crown clade containing Goniorrhachis marginataTaub. and Aphanocalyx cynometroidesOliv., but not Cercis canadensisL., Duparquetia orchidaceaBaill., or Bobgunnia fistuloides(Harms) J. H. Kirkbr. & Wiersema.
A sacred tree or holy tree is a tree which is considered to be sacred, or worthy of spiritual respect or reverence. Such trees appear throughout world history in various cultures including the ancient Hindu mythology, Greek, Celtic and Germanic mythologies. They also continue to hold profound meaning in contemporary culture in places like Japan (shinboku), Korea, India, and the Philippines, among others. Tree worship is core part of religions which include aspects of animism as core elements of their belief, which is the belief that trees, forests, rivers, mountains, etc have a life force.
Monoon longifolium, the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym Polyalthia longifolia, is an Asian small tree species in the family Annonaceae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced elsewhere in tropical Asia. This evergreen tree is known to grow over 20 m. in height and is commonly planted due to its effectiveness in alleviating noise pollution. It exhibits symmetrical pyramidal growth with willowy weeping pendulous branches and long narrow lanceolate leaves with undulate margins.
Sculpture in the Indian subcontinent, partly because of the climate of the Indian subcontinent makes the long-term survival of organic materials difficult, essentially consists of sculpture of stone, metal or terracotta. It is clear there was a great deal of painting, and sculpture in wood and ivory, during these periods, but there are only a few survivals. The main Indian religions had all, after hesitant starts, developed the use of religious sculpture by around the start of the Common Era, and the use of stone was becoming increasingly widespread.
Vachellia nilotica, more commonly known as Acacia nilotica, and by the vernacular names of gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It is also considered a 'weed of national significance' and an invasive species of concern in Australia, as well as a noxious weed by the federal government of the United States.
A salabhanjika or shalabhanjika is a term found in Indian art and literature with a variety of meanings. In Buddhist art, it means an image of a woman or yakshi next to, often holding, a tree, or a reference to Maya under the sala tree giving birth to Siddhartha (Buddha). In Hindu and Jain art, the meaning is less specific, and it is any statue or statuette, usually female, that breaks the monotony of a plain wall or space and thus enlivens it.
Madhuca longifolia is an Indian tropical tree found largely in the central, southern, north Indian plains and forests, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It is commonly known as madhūka, mahura,madkam, mahuwa, Butter Tree,mahura, mahwa, mohulo, Iluppai, Mee or Ippa-chettu. It is a fast-growing tree that grows to approximately 20 meters in height, possesses evergreen or semi-evergreen foliage, and belongs to the family Sapotaceae. It is adaptable to arid environments, being a prominent tree in tropical mixed deciduous forests in India in the states of Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Uvaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. The generic name uvaria is derived from the Latin uva meaning grape, likely because the edible fruit of some species in the genus resemble grapes.
Saraca indica, commonly known as the asoka tree, ashok or simply asoca, is a plant belonging to the subfamily Detarioideae of the family Fabaceae. The original plant specimen from which Carl Linnaeus described the species came from Java, but the name S. indica has been generally incorrectly applied to S. asoca since 1869. It can be distinguished from S. asoca by its non-clasping bracteoles, a lower number of ovules, slightly smaller pods, and a more eastern geographic distribution.
Piliostigma is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It includes five species of small deciduous trees native to sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, Java, the Philippines, and northern Australia. It belongs to the subfamily Cercidoideae and the tribe Bauhinieae. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate plants.
Hardwickia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the subfamily Detarioideae of the legumes. The only species is the anjan, Hardwickia binata, a tree which is native to India and Bangladesh, and which grows to height of 25-30 meters. This plant genus was named after Thomas Hardwicke by William Roxburgh.
The 48 kos parikrama is a parikrama of various Mahabharata-related and other Vedic-era tirthas around the Hindu holy city of Kurukshetra in the state of Haryana, India.
The sacred groves is a zone of Biodiversity Park, Visakhapatnam located in the premises of Rani Chandramani Devi Government Hospital. It has more than 100 sacred plant species, which are medicinal herbs with religious importance. Many sacred plants are becoming rare and endangered. Hence they are to be reared, protected, and conserved. The zone was inaugurated on February 5, 2017, by Kambhampati Hari Babu, a member of parliament from Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Erythrina suberosa, the corky coral tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Peninsular Malaysia. Due to its showy flowers and habit of flowering most of the year, it is often planted as an ornamental or street tree. Although the flowers can be used to make a refreshing drink, the seeds are poisonous.