Tree enthusiasts in the State capital, who are part of the Tree Walk collective, set about an exploration to understand the land of origin of trees in the city on Sunday. The 40 participants of the programme went on a ‘walk’ from the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) swimming pool to the Tagore Theatre, covering a distance of around 600 metres.
During their endeavour, they identified 22 tree species and their places of origin. These included the Copperpod, Teak, Indian Ash tree, Trincomalee tree, Myrobalan (originated from South-East Asia), Guest tree (Tropical Asia), Gulmohar (Madagascar), African Tulip (dry forests of Africa), Persian Lilac (Indo-Malayan and Australasia), Cashew (north-eastern Brazil) and Silk Cotton (Western Africa, South-East Asia, and Northern Australia).
According to S. Anitha, coordinator of Tree Walk, trees and plants have their own lands of origin, similar to animals. This interesting branch of biology known as biogeography combines ecology, evolutionary biology, geography, and geology. It also introduces the amazing world of endemism, exotic, introduced and invasive species along with native ones.
She added that a quick look at trees in Thiruvananthapuram raised questions about from where they could have come and the circumstances that had led to their being planted here.
Whole gamut of issues discussed
It also opened up a whole gamut of issues like dispersal of species, invasive species that dominate and change ecosystems, and also the impact of climate change in species composition of our habitats.
“This walk revealed the need to identify trees that are native, indigenous and endemic to Kerala. They should be grown more in the city. A failure to do so would create an environment in which we are surrounded by alien trees,” she said.
