Running, climbing, jumping, crawling, or balancing trying to test our speed, endurance and agility through our obstacle course session gets us close to nature when we are in the grind. We don’t deter nor get tired as we take shelter in the blissful shade of your presence நமேரு புன்னை. A long wait of nearly two years has finally got us closer to you and your towering presence.
Calophyllum inophyllum is your botanical name and you belong to the Calophyllaceae family also known as the beauty leaf family. Some of your common names that people are used to addressing you are Beauty Leaf, Alexandrian laurel, ball tree, beach Calophyllum, beauty leaf, domba oil tree, Indian laurel, mast wood, oilnut tree, pinnay oil tree, or red poon.
Know me scientifically
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Order: Malpighiales
- Family: Calophyllaceae
- Genus: Calophyllum
- Species: Calophyllum inophyllum
நமேரு புன்னை or Sultan Champa, a beautiful large evergreen tree is native to southern coastal India, East Africa, Malaysia, and Australia. It is a low-branching and slow-growing tree with a broad and irregular crown that usually reaches 8 to 20 m in height. நமேரு புன்னை supports a dense canopy of glossy, elliptical leaves with fragrant white flowers. The flowers are 25 mm across and occur in racemose or paniculate inflorescences consisting of 4 to 15 flowers. The flowers have snow-white petals with a thick center of yellow stamens. The fragrant flowers have been prized as an adornment and as a perfume. The fruit (the ball nut) is a round, green drupe reaching 2 to 4 cm in diameter and has a single large seed. When ripe, the fruit is wrinkled and its color varies from yellow to brownish-red. The tree often grows in coastal regions as well as nearby lowland forests. However, it has also been cultivated successfully in inland areas at moderate altitudes.
