Calcutta Botanical Gardens

[Kumar]

I undertook a short early morning trip to the Calcutta Botanical Gardens today, this having been on my agenda for the last few years, and been put off repeatedly due to the distance. I was interested because (1) I wanted to see the legendery great banyan and (2) I had heard there were a few interesting palms including one of my favourites - the talipot. I managed to spend three hours there today, covering a small portion of the area, but nonetheless captured some interesting sights.

The photography is sub standard as the dense overhead canopy allows very little light to come through and creates too many bright spots where it does.

Licuala Grandis

R. madagascarensis

Archontophoenix

[Kumar]

Very old Cycas circinalis flushing

Giant sized tamarind trees, covered liberally with ephiphytes

[Kumar]

Classic Caryota urens with narrow cylindrical crown

Close up of the ivory coloured stem

Large Teak (Tectona)

[Kumar]

Adonidia merilli, green form

A juvenile talipot struggles to clear its protective barrier while in the background there is a palm that resembles dictyosperma album

Close up of the latter

This one is labelled as Bentickia nicobarica but the leaves look a bit too pinnate

[Kumar]

Giant water lily (Victoria)

Two very very tall livistonas

[Kumar]

A clump of ptychosperma? engulfed with lianas

Phoenix rupicola with a typical 'flat' top

Large white barked eucalyptus clump

[Kumar]

The Great Banyan

[Kumar]

The official history of the great banyan

More photos of the above

[Kumar]

This palm was not accessable; The crown resembles a shuttlecock-like royal but can it be Raffia ? (Note caryota gigas to the right for comparison)

Edited November 6, 2010 by Kumar

[Kumar]

The Talipots - Part I

This talipot seems to be rather smaller than usual, though it still has the characteristic giant petiole

Close up of crown

Seedling of the same

[Kumar]

The Talipots Part II

I finally found a small group of the larger talipots, though species I am not sure. This one below has a seedling spouting from one side, or is it a sucker ?

Close up of the base

Further close up - Notice the teeth

Edited November 6, 2010 by Kumar

[Kumar]

Close up of leaf with my left hand for scale

More photos of the leaves

Classic costapalmate design (Some artistic insect has carved out very symmetrical pieces from this particular leaf)

Edited November 6, 2010 by Kumar

[Kumar]

Zooming out

Another specimen, slightly smaller and more ill-treated

[Kumar]

Lastly, I don't recognize this large tree

but it produces equally large fruit

Upright form of the mast tree (Polyalthia longifolia)- This is not seen as much as the more popular drooping variety but is a hundred times more robust as this image shows

Regenerative spouting of teak from a fallen tree

[Kumar]

A robust looking livistona,

Gigantic clump of pandanus baptistii (recently ID-ed for me)

A shot of the canna nursery

And we leave the premises as sunlight continues to trickle through

[edric]

Nice shots Kumar, thanks for taking the time to post the photos for everyone else to see, Ed

[Dr. George]

Great tour - thank you very much!

gmp

[Kris]

Dear Kumar

Nice visuals,i enjoyed the tour.And personally i feel that the stills of 'talipot palms' could be Liv.Saribus growing in dense shade conditions.And are not from the corypha family.

Thanks & Love,

kris

[Xenon]

Great pictures! I think the talipot palms are Corypha utan?

Thanks,

Jonathan

[edbrown_III]

Kumar,

Thanks for sharing--- I had a good indian friend Shri Dhar that I used to correspond with over the years (pre internet tho)--- he used to send fotos of Calcutta bot garden. I never met him tho and he passed away a year or so again. He was one of us tho--- Palm enthusiast. Thanks for sharing as it reminds me of him.

Best regards

Ed

[Peter]

Great photography in tough conditions-thanks!

[daxin]

Beautiful garden and nice photographs. I like the last one with sun rays shining through mist, very tropical. The tree with big fruits looks like Cannonball Tree, Couroupita guianensis.

[peachy]

Thank you Kumar for sharing those fascinating photos with us of a garden we would never be able to see ordinarily.

Peachy

[bubba]

Kumar, Fantastic journey and assortment. Particularly, the initial deep,dark emerald green Licuala grandis and the truly stout Addonidas merrelli. I agree with Daxin about the Cannonball.The great Banyan! Wow and thank you.

[_Rich]

Kumar, Fantastic journey and assortment. Particularly, the initial deep,dark emerald green Licuala grandis and the truly stout Addonidas merrelli. I agree with Daxin about the Cannonball.The great Banyan! Wow and thank you.

Bubba,

Not sure there was an A. merrelli in the thread? I'm not known for being particularly stellar at ID'ing palms - but I'd go out on a limb on that one.....

Buckeye Fan,

Rich

[garrin]

Thanks greatly for the photos. They are the first I have seen of the Calcutta garden. Three of my best friends from my earlier years grew up near there, and used to tell me wondrous things about the garden, especially the giant banyan. We were all living in Illinois at the time, so the descriptions of the gerden warmed this cold boy's heart!

[bayside mike]

awesome pictures that banyan is amazing

[Kumar]

Thank you all for your kind words - It is overwhelming.

PS - Daxin and Bubba, it is indeed the cannonball tree and I should have recognized it immediatelyfrom the horrible smell of dozens of fallen fruit.

PSS - Kris, I am surprised you feel that those palms identified by me as corphya are not so - I thought the stem base, the large number of fronds, stiffness of the leaflets and the length of the petioles all suggest corphya. Could you re-consider ?

[paulgila]

awesome pictorial,kumar! this is certainly an example of what i really enjoy about palmtalk!

[sur4z]

Kumar, Fantastic journey and assortment. Particularly, the initial deep,dark emerald green Licuala grandis and the truly stout Addonidas merrelli. I agree with Daxin about the Cannonball.The great Banyan! Wow and thank you.

Bubba,

Not sure there was an A. merrelli in the thread? I'm not known for being particularly stellar at ID'ing palms - but I'd go out on a limb on that one.....

Buckeye Fan,

Rich

check out post #4...go canes

[GTClover]

Kumar, thank you for the tour! Beautiful and wondrous, especially the Banyan!

Susan

[Central Floridave]

thanks for the photos.

Could the tree in #14 be a Mamay sapote ?

[Central Floridave]

Also, the "A juvenile talipot" in #4 looks a lot like a White Elephant Palm.

[Walt]

Thanks, Kumar, for taking the time to post so many wonderful photos, along with descriptions of same. The sprawling banyan tree is amazing.