Day 55 - Seed robber nabbed!

My tulsi plants are a law onto themselves - they grow as they please in any and every pot.  I let them be.  They remind me of my ajji, my grandmother - she had a tulasi vrindavane which she cared for assiduously, and she would give me the tulsi water if I happened to be around at the time, and a few leaves to eat as well.

The plants in my pots originated in my mother's garden, so there is a matrilineal connection between me and these tulsis and I indulge them and let them grow anywhere.  This "grove" is more than thirty years old I just realised, how many generations of plants!

Tulasi flowers - Ocimum tenuiflorum - little purple inflorescences that attract the  little bees - you can see one flying on the right side, a little black one, a stingless bee, if I am not mistaken.

These tiny flowers are loved by pollinators and the plant is buzzing with activity when in flower, which is right through the year. They open sequentially, over many days, and then slowly turn to seed, and new little ones come from the seeds that fall in the soil.

Those seeds that escape these "robbers", that is.  The Indian palm squirrel or three-striped palm squirrel (Funambulus palmarum)

Through the day, I hear them calling from the trees and sometimes on our parapet wall as well.  But when they come to eat like this, they are stealthy, silent and quick!!

As I watched and clicked, I was reminded of my son's tamil song when in kindergarten

Anile anile odivaa  

Azhagiya anile odivaa  

Koyya maram eri vaa  

Gundu pazham kondu vaa  

Paathi pazham unnidam  

Meethi pazham ennidam  

Koodikoodi iruvarum  

Korithu korithu thinnalaam

😊