Trees of Vedavalli – Walajapet Campus

This map shows the trees at Vedavalli Walajapet campus. The number near each tree corresponds to the serial number of that type of tree in the Table below. A team of three teachers, Ms. Elavarasi, Ms. Pappitha and Ms. Rathna, along with our stores in-charge, Mr. Palani, carried out this documentation of our trees. Ms. Lakshmi, our Biology teacher, helped by giving us the names of most of the trees.

We found a total of 117 trees on our campus. We got information on the uses of trees from the World Book Encyclopedia in our library. We referred to ‘Common Trees’ by Fr. H. Santapau which is available on the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/CommonTrees and on Arvind Gupta’s website. We also consulted Mr. Kamaraj, botanist and Mr. Saravanan, Sr. Education officer of WWF – India, Chennai branch.

Sr.No	Botanical Name	Common Name	Tamil Name	No. of Trees
1.	Ficus benghalensis	Banyan	Alai	1
2.	Ficus religiosa	Peepal	Araca-Maram	7
3.	Cassia siamea	Siamese Senna	Manjal Konrai	5
4.	Bauhinia racemosa	Mountain Ebony	Tataki	4
5.	Millingtonia hortensis	Indian Cork	Kat-Malli	5
6.	Tectona grandis	Teak	Tekku	62
7.	Parkia biglandulosa	Badminton Ball	Campirani	2
8.	Syzygium cumini	Indian Cherry	Naval Pazham	3
9.	Ficus microcarpa	Laurel Fig	Kallichchi	1
10.	Pongamia pinnata	Pongam	Pungai	1
11.	Polyalthia longifolia	False Ashoka	Mara Illupai / Assothi	2
12.	Acacia catechu	Black cutch	Cenkarungali	2
13.	Ceiba pentandra	Silk Cotton	Pancu	1
14.	Pithecellobium dulce	Manilla Tamarind	Kodukkappuli	6
15.	Cocos nucifera	Coconut	Thennai	4
16.	Putranjiva roxburghii	Parupala*	Karupala	1
17.	Pterocarpus santalinus	Red Sanders	Santhana Vengai	1
18.	Albizia lebbeck	Indian Siris or East Indian Walnut	Siridam	1
19.	Morinda citrifolia	Bartondi	Nuna Tree	4
20.	Moringa oleifera	Drumstick	Murungai	2
21.	Azadirachta indica	Neem	Veppam	10
22.	Delonix regia	Gulmohar	Cemmayir-Konrai	1
23.	Cycas revoluta	Sago Palm		1
24.	Psidium guajava	Common guava	Segappu Koyyaa	1
25.	Arenga wightti	Wight’s Sago Palm	Alam Panei	6
26.	Peltophorum pterocarpum	Copper Pod	Perunkonrai	1
27.	Araucaria columnaris	Christmas Tree		1
28.	Acacia ferruginea	Rusty Acacia	Cimai-Velvel	6
29.	Tamarindus indica	Tamarind	Puli	4
30.	Mangifera indica	Mango	Mangga	2
31.	Gliricidia sepium *	Mexican Lilac	Seemai Agathi	2

Trees in our campus and their common uses :

1) Banyan tree

It is a source of shade. It has many health benefits to cure problems of hair, tooth ache and diabetes.

2) Peepal tree

In auyurveda it is said that every part such as leaf, bark and fruit is used in medicine. A shape of the leaf is like a heart. Also known as bodhi tree or ashwatha tree.

3) Konnai

Also known as golden rain or shower tree. It is also used in herbal medicine for treating constipation, fever, skin disease / also called crown of gold tree.

4) Mountain ebony

Common names include orchid tree, camel’s foot tree, used as food item in South Asia.

5) Indian – cork tree

Is considered ornamental and pleasant fragrance of theflowers renders it ideal as a garden tree. Wood is used as timber and bark is used as an inferior substitute for cork. The leaves are also used as a cheap substitute for tobacco in cigarettes. Roots – as antiansm – athetic.

6) Teak

Mature teak fetches a very good price. Leaves of the teak wood trees are used in making pellakai gatti (jack fruit dumpling), where batter is poured into a teak leaf and is steamed. Useful to make furniture.

7) Badminton ball

Tall tree. Native of West Africa.

8) Indian cherry

The ripe fruit has much traditional use

9) Grey woolly banyan

The leaves of the banyan are large, leathery, glossy green and elliptical in shape.

10) Pongam oil tree

Is renowned for its shade and is well known in traditional uses for its medicinal uses. It is also grown as a host plant for lac insects. Its potential use as a source of bio – diesel.

11) False ashoka

The leaves are used for ornamental decoration during festivals. The tree is a main attraction in gardens throughout India. In past,the flexible, straight and light weight trunks were used in the making of masts for sailing ships that is why the tree is also known as the mast tree. Today, the tree is mostly used for manufacturing small articles such as pencils,boxes, match sticks, etc….

12)Red cutch

The hard wood and bark of the tree are used in traditional medicine. The wood extract used for sore throats and diarrhea.

13) Silk cotton tree

Is cultivated for the seed fibre and a lso known as the Java cotton, Java kapok most used common name, silk cotton.

(Note: Kapok means most used common name)

14) Manila tamarind

The fruits are red pinkish to greenish brown in colour. It is multipurpose tree with edible and indehiscent pods. Pulp is used in tanning industry. Trunk is spiny, leaves are bipinnate.

15) Coconut palm

With a single straight trunk. The oily milk derived from it is are commonly used in cooking and frying.

16) Parupala

A decoction of leaves and fruit is taken for the treatment of liver complaint, cold, fever and rheumatism, an olive – brown oil is obtained from the seed is used for burning.

17) Red sandal tree seeds

This wood has been traditionally used as a sacred wood. The priestly classes extensively use this wood on many of their rituals. It is also used to make furniture.

18) Indian siris

East Indian walnut – It is used to prepare various medicines. It is a non – toxic tree. This tree contains alkaloids, tannins, saponius and flavoniods which has medicinal action. It is a nitrogen fixing tree. In ayurveda its use is specially indicated in treating bites and stings from poisonous animals such as snake.

19) Indian mulberry

It is a source of antioxidants, vitamin c and potassium. A mixture of raw fruit and leaves is cure for skin infections such as boils an bruising.

20) The horse radish tree

The tree yields a gum belonging to the tragacanth group. The seeds yield clear, almost colorless oil which is much valued as a lubricant, and is also used as perfume.

21) Neem tree

It is known as “the village pharmacy” because of its healing versatility and it has been used in Auyurvedic medicine for more than 4000 years.

22) Gulmohar

The flowers and buds are used as a pat herb, and eaten like spinach. The root system is frequently very shallow often resulting in the tree being easily blown down.

23) Cycas – fern palm

It is known for its feathery foliage and ease of care. One of the oldest groups of plants dating back to prehistoric times not tolerates too much moisture. Well known for harboring pests like scale bugs.

24) Guava

Guava leaves are best known as a natural pain reliever. The leaves have long been used in folk medicine to treat a number of aliments such as cough, dysentery, skin diseases and cholera.

25) Wild coconut

Aliments such as coughs, dysentery, skin diseases and chalipa. The plant is a feather palm, which means that its leaves are pinately unbranched stem. Today palms are popular in parks and gardens.

26) Rusty shield bearer

The wood has a wide variety of uses, and the foliage is used as a fodder crop. The pods remain in the trees almost till the next spring and at that time they become black and fragile.

27) X-mas tree

Co2 is taken out of the atmosphere, removes 13 tons of air borne pollutants per acre per year. They are considered as and agricultural product.

28) Cooba tree

The bark has been traditionally put to use by indigenous Australians as a toxin for fishing. Australians burn its leaves and smoke the ash to obtain a state of inebriation.

29) Tamarind

Health benefits of Tamarind- As most ancient foods do, tamarind has a long history of medicinal uses. Many involve easing stomach discomfort aiding digestion and use as a laxative. Tamarind preparations are used for fevers, sore throat, rheumatism, inflammation and sunstroke.

30) Mango

Prevents cancer, research has shown antioxidant compounds in mango fruit have been found to protect against colon, breast, leukemia and prostate cancers. Lowers cholesterol, clears the skin, improves digestion, helps fight heat stroke, improve eye health.