Dharwad Natak Company arpisuva- Nammoora Kempu Habba !

Yellow...!

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula) is popularly known as the Golden Shower Tree, courtesy a drooping shower of gorgeous, fragrant yellow flowers that appear around February, March and in the case of this tree, in April too. It is locally, known as 'Kakke Mara' or 'Amaltas'.

The seed pods of the tree can grow up to two feet in length. A sweetish pulp around seed pods is popular amongst squirrels. The pulp is used as a glue and is also said to have laxative properties... Featured here is the utterly stunning 'Indian Laburnum' growing beside the University Tower... There used be a huge number of these growing around this campus in the 80's and 90's. A lot of lovely wooded areas have been cleared up for new departments and we have lost a precious number of these trees that look spectacular when in full bloom...

This here, is one of the few old Laburnums that survived as it is very close to the tower, and there's hopefully no construction that could happen in this place...

Unlike the Yellow Tabebuia in the garden in front of the tower, it was difficult to get good long shots of this stunning tree, as it is caught between two Langerstorme flos reginae, a wild gooseberry closeby and some gulmohars right behind.

Looks like I didn't have enough of yellow the day before. For I cycled back there early the next morning...! After my customary ride to the Management Institute at the far end of the University campus, I rode straight up to the Casia Fistula/Indian Laburnum for more YELLOW !

The previous morning, I wasn't able to spend much time there, as the visit was an afterthought. My original destination was at another haunt of mine, the woods near the botanical garden. After a lovely adventure exploring that place, I thought of checking on this yellow beauty and managed to spend a few minutes there. As always, was happy that I could make it, satisfied with a few frames, but longed to get back and capture better frames/perspectives...

This time, I was determined and spent about an hour peering and peeping all over and around the yellow stunner in the lovely early morning sunlight...

I have tried again to capture the surfeit of yellow blossoms, the abundance of this summer stunner...! And, I also know, I have miles to go... But the super bonus of trying- every single moment spent under/around the Casia fistula was nothing short of an enchanting experience...!

And before I forget, the other long-term reward- people noticing my antics and getting curious about the tree, and me actually getting an opportunity to tell them about this one and so many other stunning and rare arboreal wonders of our Dharwad... And today, I lost count of the number of people I spoke to. I could not have asked for a better start to a day...!!