This Tabebuia is the oldest and largest around and puts up a spectacular show every spring...!!
Dharwad has quite a few "Tabebuia" trees spread out in different areas.
The Tabebuia flowers in lovely shades of yellow, bright pink, mauve and pale pink/mauve. The yellow and pink Tabebuia were widely grown and seen in Bengaluru, our garden city of yore, during the 70's, 80's and 90's! It was introduced to the avenues of Dharwad/Hubli somewhere in the early 80's by the horticulture dept. And today, we see quite a few of these splendid trees adding to the beauty of our quaint lil town Dharwad !
The Tabebuia, also known by its common name Yellow poui, is a native of Central and South America and the national tree of Paraguay. The inner bark of Tabebuia has antibacterial and decongestant properties and is hence used in herbal medicines and to brew tea, known as lapacho.
In Dharwad, the Tabebuia are the first to bloom in spring ! An interesting phenomenon I've noticed is, like the Gul mouhar or other flowering trees, the Tabebuia does not go through stages to reach this amazing point of full bloom. It's almost an overnight occurrence ! One morning you see the tree almost bare and the next you find it having burst in spectacular bloom...!
The delicate almost wispy tubular flowers are packed in tight bunches in most species and in some they are sparse bunches of two or three flowers. Whether in bunches or single identities, these flowers always succeed in evoking a sense of awe and a spontaneous A "Wow" ! simply slips out without a second thought...!
If the flowers evoke an obvious awe, the leaves are not to be left behind and in fact vie for rightful attention. For, they too have a distinct identity and manage to be a perfect foil to the wispy flowers. They spread out like an open palm with five pretty sap green leaves. Now could the bark of the Tabebuia be left without mention? Nah ! Stand beside a Tabebuia and observe the light ocher bark. It has a very interesting serrated/grooved wavy pattern. The artist in me is always intrigued and arrested by this interesting pattern and I never fail to stop and literally gawk open-mouthed when ever I happen to pass by a Tabebuia !
And now my heart was beating faster and my pulse racing with excitement... But there was still the fence between us... And I knew, I had to now make it a sprint... to be beside this stunning golden spectacle...!!
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