HYDERABAD: At dusk, this season, the ambience at Raheja Mindspace and Necklace Road changes dramatically, thanks to the boulevards dotted with Devil’s tree (Alstonia scholaris). Air surrounding these areas is redolent with a thick perfume of blooming trees. The fragrance is so eminent that it even kills the pungence of the Hussain Sagar lake after the festive season and leaves an intangible sweet aura at Mindspace.
The tree’s whorled inflorescences, bearing candid flowers, have covered the entire canopy in floral galaxies that emit a slightly spicy and sweet smell akin to that of cardamom that is felt at the lakeside avenue and Mindspace office block.
These flowers are not ideally beautiful. They don’t even look like real flowers as the colouration is dull lime green. But its fragrance is captivating. Many insects, such as butterflies, bees and even birds, rely on its sweet nectar concealed inside the orifice of thick petals of each flower.
This flower is punctual too. The fragrance emits precisely when the sky is painted pink and mauve and is decorated with the evening ceremony of descending sun and dissolving clouds of October. To make it even better, the moon these days is crescent and begins to shine with a reddish-yellow glow before the sunset. The smell remains throughout the night and suddenly vanishes during the daytime. “I always stop under these trees. At first, I did not realise where this sweet smell came from. Now I know it’s this tree. I cannot still resist taking a break here,” said S Natrajan, an evening walker who takes a stroll every day alongside Necklace Road.
“It’s always pleasant to stop under this tree. The air is thick with its smell, sweet and fresh,” said Anjannama, a gardener who maintains avenue trees near Necklace roads. According to B Sreenivas, (retired) deputy conservator of forests and the director of urban forestry, “These Alstonia trees were strategically planted alongside Necklace Road in the avenues near Hussain Sagar lake 15 years ago to kill the stench that emits from the lake. It was planted to create ambience and shade in many areas like Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills and HITEC city.”
These trees were planted, along with another species of fragrant tree called Tree Jasmine (Millingtonia hortensis), added he. Millington is still in bloom. “The blooming season of Millingtonia starts early in October, whereas in Alstonia, the blooming season begins in late October, and flowers start withering in December,” the forest conservator noted.
Alstonia trees are also planted alongside the avenue in Mindspace of Hitech city. For some, the smell of these flowers is associated with memories, as they share when posting on Twitter and Instagram. Alstonia trees are also, alternatively, planted in the avenues at Somajiguda Main Road, near Golkonda Hotel, Masabtank.