Let us talk about trees for a moment

Every time I enter the school I am struck by the sight of the trees lining the path to the office.  Sadly, the previous year’s cyclone uprooted many of them. But this has brought to the fore the trees in the background.  One of my favourites stands beyond the cycle stand to the right.  Most times, it looks like just another tree.  But some nights, when its silhouette stands against the moon and Saturn, it forces me to pause a moment and gaze at it.  As I write these words, it seems more spooky than pleasant.  But the sight of a tree with the sky in the background can never be spooky.   In any case, the noise of the vehicles drives away any trace of the spooks. 

A little further, the path gets crowded with plants and trees with beautiful pagoda shaped leaves.  Recently, I realized that these are known as the Indian cork tree.  Its bark is soft and used as a substitute for cork.  This is not the most interesting aspect of the tree though.  The tree has shallow roots running up to 60 metres.  Every metre or so, the roots sprout the tree’s next generation from root nodules.  Using this mechanism, the Indian cork tree ensures it occupies an entire area to itself.  When I looked around I found two such locations in the campus.  The first is on the right side of the path leading from the main gate.  The other one lies beyond the dining hall; besides the path leading to the science block.

I understand very little about trees but this one fact has made me look at them differently.  I can identify the mango and neem trees.  I think the time has come to learn more about trees.