From Madagascar to Kerala

The bright orange-red flower of the Delonix regia tree is a common sight in a hot and humid Kerala that is eagerly awaiting the southwest monsoon. Poets, writers, artists and others who are not necessarily inclined to botany would assume that the Gulmohar tree, as it’s called in western India, has been a part of Kerala’s landscape since time immemorial. The tree, however, is not native to the
Indian subcontinent, but traces its origin to the dry deciduous forests of the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar.

The orange-red flowers are now an integral part of a Kerala summer, but the tree only managed to find its way to the state in the 19th century.It is widely believed that the Delonix regla was introduced in India around 1840 .near Bombay (Mumbai). The tree’s first Indian name, Gulmohar, refers to the beauty of its flowers. Gul means flower in Persian, while mor, which got corrupted to mohar, means peacock. From Maharashtra the tree travelled far and wide across the subcontinent and made its way to Kera