City Nature – Two Bougainvillea Trees, Lodhi Garden
Season’s spectacle.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Following are a few observations made in a city park one uncomfortably warm noon this week.
1. Currently, the most beautiful sight in Delhi is of two side-by-side bougainvillea trees in Lodhi Garden, close to the duck pond.
2. From afar, the two trees are twinning like Seeta aur Geeta, both being superfluously loaded with dark pink flowers.
3. The flowers are raining down nonstop from the bougainvillea branches, carpet bombing the muddy ground in pink.
4. These two bougainvillea trees bear flowers throughout the year, a park gardener asserts, but the densest blossoming occurs now, after the conclusion of winter. The lush bloom will last through the summer, she says, and will end with the monsoon’s first baarish.
5. One of these two bougainvillea trees have been supplemented with Lodhi Garden’s typical green benches. The tree without the benches have three friends Tanisha, Ujala and Nikita sitting crosslegged under it. They are celebrating Tanisha’s birthday with a butterscotch cake.
6. Most bougainvilleas are encountered in the city as climbers and shrubs, though another majestic tree-sized bougainvillea stands not far from Lodhi Garden—inside the Parsi Cemetery.
7. The bougainvillea flowers emit no scent, and are papery on touch. Actually, what we think of as flowers of bougainvillea are its leaves, which when took on the colour no longer look like conventional leaves.
8. Lodhi Garden hosts another monumental bougainvillea installation. The so-named Glass House at the park’s southern side is currently resembling a pink wonderland.
9. Some of the other notable bougainvillea sights in Delhi are at Chelmsford Road, Shantipath, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Pusa, where a garden maintains 150 species of bougainvilleas. Citizens may visit the garden during the first week of April, from 9am to 5pm.
10. The aforementioned Indian Agricultural Research Institute also houses the headquarters of the Bougainvillea Society of India that has more than 400 members.
11. Poet Octavio Paz, a Nobel laureate, wrote several poems on Delhi during his stint as Mexico’s ambassador, including a haiku-like four-liner on Lodhi Garden. He lived close to the park, at 13, Prithviraj Road. However, no poem by him mentions these two bougainvillea trees.
12. Poet Kamala Das, during her stint in Delhi, similarly lived within a walking distance of Lodhi Garden, in Rabindra Nagar. One of her poems is titled The Wild Bougainvillea.
Notes on bougainvillea
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