The Queen and her green canopy

A 100 saplings were planted on the campus to mark the centenary. Thats enough material for her next book.

September 02, 2014 06:49 pm | Updated 06:49 pm IST

Dr. Thilagavathi

Dr. Thilagavathi

Dr. Thilagavathi was very happy with her new posting as assistant professor, Botany, at Queen Mary's College. Tiruchi was “home-town” but Chennai had a beach for walks. She found a house in Santhome, and was soon on the Marina promenade at sunrise. “But I never managed to walk beyond the Queen Mary’s College gates,” she said. “The campus looked like a forest from across the road. I wanted to check out the trees and the shrubs. What kind of vegetation resisted the salty breeze so well?”

On those walks, she gave herself a daily quiz — identify each tree, shrub and herb. She was thrilled when she could, took pictures when she couldn't, and rushed home to find out. Three years later, her project was complete: she now knew the 17 acres of the campus was crowded with 258 plants of which 49 were trees. Herbs, shrubs, grasses, sedges and climbers made up the rest. She could identify every one of them.

It is a case of curiosity growing into a hobby she said, when I met her in the staffroom. To coincide with QMC's centenary this year, she decided to compile the campus greenery into a glossy — what better way to salute the grand old lady than to record her green cover that surely pre-dated her? “Here it is,” she said, and pulled out the 320-page tome she has named Flora of Queen Mary's College .

The book is comprehensive with tables of botanical/family/common/vernacular names of the flora, maps, a note on plant-diversity, a pie-chart of family names and “spooky” snap-shots of trees and climbers around the old buildings that bring out the forest ambience spectacularly. Every subsequent page tells the story of a tree/shrub/herb with pictures and information on its name, use, special qualities.

But even a book like this can't beat a walk in the woods. We step out, Dr. Thilagavathi leading the way — stopping, pointing, narrating how she discovered their names, properties and coastal claims — an enthusiastic mom promoting her kids. Ear-leaf acacia, she says, pointing to a gnarled collection of trunks and leaves. “Called pencil maram , used for furniture, the species grows well in sandy regions and prevents soil erosion.” The jamun tree “grows all down the coast.” We stop to look at the shampoo/soap-nut tree ( Sapindus emarginatus ), the anti-inflammatory Premna corymbosa (“I saw it only in this campus,”), the seasonal Indian ash tree ( Lannea coromandelica, udiyamaram — trunk used for ship-building and the bark, for ulcer/wound treatment), Jamaica cherry (wild, edible red fruit) again seen only on this campus, silver oak in front of the English department “new, didn't see it last year”, lead tree that grows only on sand “consulted the Internet for identification”, 15 sausage trees — definitely coastal and common to the city. Looming ahead are Coomb tree ( kumadi ), sandy again, eucalyptus and bulletwood ( magizhampoo ).

We talk of ficus — “a street in Mylapore is lined with them, an only-in-Chennai phenomenon,” she said. “The tall ornamental shrub on the Marina is Plumeria alba . With leaves at the tip of stalks, it can withstand sea-breeze.” Munnai (Premna corymbosa ) is used while cooking fish, while Guazuma ulmifolia (faux rudhraksh, pickle-nut) has fine surface hair that can catch metal particles and absorb it. They make excellent avenue trees, but need care during rains. There is the threateningly-named devil-pepper/be-still/wild-snake-root ( Rauvolfia tetraphylla ) tree, aanaikundumani (Adenanthera pavonina – symbol of love in China), whose seeds are used as jeweller's weight, siris (vaagai ) (the bark is used to treat bronchitis, and the seeds for piles), neem, punnai, nettilingam , and among herbs, argemone that grows in profusion.

We cover every inch of the campus: we squeeze through a wicket gate to the abandoned old building at the back where every tree/shrub (one is Pisonia alba ) is 100-plus. We climb down steps in the front to check out the grove of temple trees. “Why is this area at a lower level?” she asks and answers: “undulating sand dunes, maybe.” Walking through the shrubs and vines, she bends and picks passiflora (passion) fruits. “Eat these, they taste superb!” I wait to make sure of the reaction. I'm already pleasantly woozy. We move towards the canteen for a darshan of the tree of life (tree of trees). A couple of branches have been chopped off, but Dr. Thilagavathi is consoled that we can see the beautiful patterns on the trunk. “This is high-density wood, Lignum vitae , the leaves are medicinal.”

A 100 saplings were planted on the campus to mark the centenary. That's enough material for her next book.

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