Each plant usually has the same kind of leaves, flowers and fruits (with slight variations sometimes) no matter where in the world it grows. Such high consistency urged scientists to come up with scientific names for each plant, that could be consistent , so a plant is known by the same name all over the world. Interestingly these names seem quite complex to common people who find it difficult to remember these names. Hence they usually prefer to remember the common names and forgo the scientific names.
But scientific names can be easy to remember if you can learn to break down their words and understand their meanings. For example the name of Angsana tree is Pterocarpus indicus, which has two Greek words Ptero means with wings and carpus means fruit. This tree is so named for its light papery fruit pods that easily ‘fly’ in the wind. Since it is native to India hence the specific name indicus.
The yellow flowers of this tree bloom only for a day and make the beautiful yellow carpets on the floor. You can find these in bloom at this time of the year.
The Angsana avenue off MacPherson Road is named after this beautiful tree.
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