I have spent almost forty years in my hospital, initially as a student, then as a resident doctor, and then as faculty. In all these years I did not know that a tree called 'silk cotton tree' existed in the world, and there was one in our campus too. I used to look at it and wonder what it was, when I happened to look outside the window of the postnatal ward. It looked like this.
It is as tall as a five-storey building of old times (seven-storey building of modern times). It grows fruit in bunches that look like bananas when unripe. I did not take a picture when it was full of green colored fruit. Finally I took one a couple of days ago. The fruit looked like this.
I could never have guessed what they were. Luckily I found one which had burst open. It showed silky cotton inside, from which it has probably derived its name. It looked like this.
The scale kept next to it shows that each fruit is about 7 to 8 inches long. I have written about it here, because I thought that a lot of people like me would not know about it.
My wife told me it was called Shalmali (शाल्मली) and was used in Ayurvedic medicine. You can learn more about it here.
It is as tall as a five-storey building of old times (seven-storey building of modern times). It grows fruit in bunches that look like bananas when unripe. I did not take a picture when it was full of green colored fruit. Finally I took one a couple of days ago. The fruit looked like this.
I could never have guessed what they were. Luckily I found one which had burst open. It showed silky cotton inside, from which it has probably derived its name. It looked like this.
The scale kept next to it shows that each fruit is about 7 to 8 inches long. I have written about it here, because I thought that a lot of people like me would not know about it.
My wife told me it was called Shalmali (शाल्मली) and was used in Ayurvedic medicine. You can learn more about it here.
