Showing posts with label city parks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label city parks. Show all posts

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Spotted! Owlet at Children's Park.

Dec 18th - Children's Park - Nizhal Marghazhi walk

Had a delightful stroll with a large bunch of adults and kids through the Children's Park, Guindy.  Everytime I visit the park, I love the walk through the trees, and despite the hordes of people and buses in the car park, they all seem to go to other parts of the park!

A spotted owlet, spotted because it "blessed" one of the walkers right below!

The soapnut tree with lots of nuts.
The inky marams were in fruit too.

Ouch!  And why do they have to nail the boards, so?
Still more walks coming up:

Semmozhi - Dec 25th - Sun 10.30 am and Jan 7th - Sat morn 10.30 am


Children's Park - Dec 31st - Sat 10.30 am and Jan 8th - Sun 4 pm.


Panagal park as well - Dec 24th - Sat 4pm and Jan 1st - Sun morn 10.30 am


Dont miss them!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Nizhal Marghazhi walks are on


Nizhal has a whole bunch of tree walks planned for the month of Marghazhi.  The first one at Semmozhi Poonga was today morning.  It was led by Arun-of-the-turtlewalk-now-afforesting-Tiruvannamalai fame, and there were around 20 of us, several children.

The weather was fabulous, and the poonga not too crowded.  The nux vomica was in fruit and the ducks have had babies.  So if you missed today's walk there are several others to attend.

The tree walks are in three of the city's parks, and here are the dates and times.

Semmozhi Poonga - RK Salai
======================

Dec 25th - Sun 10.30 am
Jan 7th - Sat morn 10.30 am

Children's Park - Guindy
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Dec 18th - Sun morning 10.30 am
Dec 31st - Sat 10.30 am
Jan 8th - Sun 4 pm.

Panagal Park - T Nagar
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Dec 24th - Sat 4pm
Jan 1st - Sun (new year) 10.30 am


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Sivan Park perambulations

Sivan Park is in KK Nagar and was the venue for Nizhal's public walk in October, falling on Gandhi Jayanti.

If you are wondering where it is, take a look at the map:


View Larger Map

We landed up there bright and early, to see one large Sivan statue staring at us!! (I had thought the park was named after some luminary of Madras called Sivan, and did not imagine it was named after the ultimate Sivan!!).  The story goes that the park was called MGR Park, and the Sivan statue was put there for some film shooting....and then was subsequently not removed, and it became Sivan Park!! This anecdote was narrated by active Nizhal member Kasiraman, a resident of the area.

The MGR statue outside the park seems to bear testimony to this story.  And if you want to see the Sivan statue, click here.

The "we" included my poor husband coopted as driver, Sumana, Vijay and me.  Since this was my first visit to the park, I wanted to ensure that there were atleast a few trees that I could identify!!  A quick recce with Sumana.  We strolled through the army of morning walkers, who stared at us with curiosity - oddities we must have been, craning our necks to look at canopies while everyone else marched on briskly, either chattering with companions or with a grumpy oh-why-am-I-hear scowl on their faces.  Nettilingam, aala maram, arasamaram, nagalingam, neem... all there, nice and large and healthy, so I let out a first sigh of relief.

And then came the mystery tree.  Three of them, large and imposing!

Lagerstroemia microcarpa?

So, this is what we looked up to - leaves so far up that my myopic eyes were tested to the full.  Peeling bark, could it be Pride of India I wondered.

But then Sumana spotted white flowers and small berries!  (Pride of India aka Crepe Myrtle has large lavender/purple flowers.)
White flowers
Berries or buds? 
(Back at home, and with the help of flowersofindia.in, I tentatively identified this as Ben Teak, venthekku in Tamil, a native tree.  Am I right?  If it is that tree, then this is a Sivan Park highlight.)

The debate was abandoned and we moved on. Copper Pod, Gulmohar, Parklandia,  Palm, Neem, Pongam, Pooarasam.  OK, not too bad, we can still cope.


We began our walk, (with a good handful of Nizhalites, plus some firsttimers,)  next to the Nettilingam, Mast Tree...and the newbies "walked" into the Ashoka "trap", and so I unleashed the no,-this-is-false-ashoka-not-the-realmccoy story, as a chameleon looked on rather dubiously.


The Peepul photo essay





Eucalyptus microtheca?

Another unknown once again with white flowers looking a lot like eucalyptus, but with no characteristic vicks smell!


Could this be the Coolabah, introduced from Australia?


The idying was done later on, post walk.
The thenpuchi maram (Guazuma ulmifolia) revealed a flower, and had lovely fresh leaves, all hairy and ready to collect dust.

Pongamia leaves, completely covered with the characteristic leaf galls.
And we ended next to the naagalingam, a native of the Amazonian region of South America, but now venerated here!

The tree was in flower and there were a few on the ground as well, that allowed us to examine its astonishing flower structure.
Couroupita guianensis
We wound up with Mr Kasi Vishwanathan of Nizhal Anna Nagar talking about his experiences with the Metro Rail project, and how 24 large trees of Thiruvika park were transplanted, and 23 have survived and taken root again!

This is the cost of development that we as a society do need to factor in.  If we chop off these large trees, how long will it take before the new trees grow to these impressive sizes?

"What we are doing to the forests of the world, is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and one another" - MK Gandhi.



Saturday, September 24, 2011

Semmozhi, again

More Semmozhi trees here.
Markhamia Lutea - 
The "throat" of the flower is deeper colour as against yellow cordia, which is yellow throughout.
Terminalia bellerica - one of the "triphala" trees.  There are lights strung around this tree....not good. 

Schleichera oleosa - Ceylon lac tree - kasumbh in Hindi, a rare tree.  

I need to go back to collect some fruit and seed.
An amazing, magnificent, huge tree.  Is it a mimusops/maghizam?  The canopy was so high, we couldn't check for flowers or fruit!

 There were a few saplings like this, which was identified as Buddha coconut by Arun.  Pterygota alata, it has lovely flowers, and a fruit that looks like a coconut!  Its a medium-sized tree, and can be used to line avenues.
 Another sapling - Milettia ovalifolia - shisham, a variety of rosewood with clusters of pink flowers.
A lovely large red sanders, endemic to our region, valued for the wood, and protected as well.

It had a lovely blue vine along its trunk, so if you visit the park, that is a good way to know you are at the red sanders!

Another large magnificent tree.



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