The Fig and the Wasp

 When you tear a banyan fig open, chances are you will find a colony of tiny insects/ larvae inside it. But how did they get there?

Certain wasp species co-evolved with banyans. An impregnated female wasp carrying pollen enters the banyan fig, deposits pollen, lays her eggs and dies. When the eggs hatch, the male wasp impregnates a female wasp, drills out of the fig and dies. The female laden with fresh pollen, escapes through the hole drilled by the male, enters another banyan fig, deposits pollen, lays her eggs and dies. The cycle continues.

Since the life cycle of a wasp is very short, and they cannot reproduce without banyan figs, the banyan tree produces fruits throughout the year. These figs attract fructivorous birds like barbets and hornbills, ants, small mammals including monkeys and other flora/ fauna. The banyan tree is, therefore, always teeming with life.

The banyan is considered a keystone species since it, in effect, defines the ecosystem.

If you chop off the canopy of a banyan prior to translocation, you not only put the banyan in danger, you destroy the entire ecosystem that is centred around it.

On #NationalConservationDay, let us pledge to save the Banyan, our National Tree.

The Unexpected Visitor

 

I grew up loving lantana. The multicoloured flowers. The dark blue berries I loved to eat (in moderation). The butterflies that visited them. I even like the weird smell the leaves gave out when crushed.

During the pandemic, when sunbirds and silverbills started visiting my balcony, I dreamt of getting lantana too, so the butterflies would come. But people discouraged me. I understood they were an invasive species that messes with the biodiversity and is toxic to herbivores. That they have taken over more than 40% of tiger habitats and are almost impossible to get rid of. Though I really wanted the butterflies, I didn't get the lantanas I craved.

Then this plant sprang from nowhere (not really nowhere- from the belly of a fructivorous bird that must have visited). I rarely weed out the plants that spring up in my pots, so let this one grow. By the time I realised it was lantana, I didn't have the heart to uproot it, and even if I did, unless I burnt it, it would have just taken root wherever I trashed it. Maybe I was meant to have the lantana. And the butterflies I hope they attract.

I just need to make sure the plant doesn’t fruit, so the it doesn’t propagate further.

Never give up on anyone

 Two years back, when I returned from a work trip, I found my mother had thrown out my plumeria.

“That plant is dead. You are just clinging onto it because you are too lazy to throw it out”, she chided when I asked her why she’d thrown out a perfectly good plant.

To be honest, she wasn’t entirely wrong. I am too lazy to weed or prune, and I almost never give a plant up for dead. The plants in my garden thrive on neglect and hope. And in this case, I had hope that, though it had shed all its leaves, the plumeria still had life left in it.

I sneaked the plant back in, and kept watering it. It appeared dead, but I insisted it was just dormant, and six months later, it proved me right by letting out two leaves.

A year back, we moved homes, and with much more direct sunlight, the plant thrived.

“You are lucky to have inherited your Patti’s green fingers”, my mother told me when she last visited us. I didn’t tell her the plant with the glossy leaves in front of her was the same one that she had given up on.

 

A couple of weeks back, the plant gave out buds. Plants often give buds but don’t bloom, so though I hoped for a couple of flowers, I didn’t get my hopes up. I knew I would continue to love the plant even if the buds dried up the way they often do.

But this plant is a survivor. It had to show me what it was capable of.

 

This may be the only time the plant flowers. Or this may be the first of many flowering seasons. But one thing I know.

Whether it is plants or people- never give up on them.

The Cycle of Life: day 33 of #100happydays

A few months back, I had bought marigold flowers by weight before a festival. A couple of days later, the seeds ended up in my pots. Last week, orange flowers graced my balcony. Today, I harvested the first round of seeds from the plant I grew from seeds myself.

Who knows how much longer this circle of life will continue. If sometime in the future,  my balconies will get taken over by grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the plant I now have, their relationships so complicated, nobody can untangle them.

Plants teach us that beauty comes to those who have faith.

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Floral Bling- Day 25 of #100happydays

I don’t normally buy flowers, but when I do, I make sure I buy only marigolds. Because once you are done enjoying them, you can take the flowers apart, shake out the seeds, and plant them. If you are lucky, some of them sprout, take root, grow and become plants themselves. And if you are very, very lucky, a few of them even give you a new crop of flowers.
Can anything be more satisfying that seeing the creation of something out of what would normally be thrown away? Can anything look prettier than orange floral bling in your balcony?
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Saffron, white and green make up the colours of the Indian flag- my balcony celebrated Republic Day in its own way!

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Giving a Weed a Home- Day 16 of #100happy days

“Look, Mamma, that looks like something from Harry Potter’s Herbology class”, exclaimed my older one.

When I looked where he was pointing, I had to agree with him. With its droopy sepals nearly hiding the rapidly ripening fruit, the thing did look like something that could be cut up and brewed into a potion.

We spent many minutes examining the fruit and talking about why the plant needs such sharp thorns. They learnt more in those few minutes than they might in a few science classes.

Officially, it’s a weed, but it will always have a home in my garden.

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Allamanda blossoms- Day 13 of #100happy days

To me, flowers are not just flowers. Flowers are memories. Powerful memories. Memories that root me to the people who made me who I am.

Not very many people grow allamandas- perhaps the bright yellow colour, and the rather commonplace prettiness makes it not sophisticated enough for most homes. But one look at the flower, and I am once again a three year old held up high by her father, so her nose is level with the flower, and she can smell the lack of scent.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that I have a plant in my kids’ balcony?

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The seeds you sow

About a year back, I advised someone who was contemplating withdrawing from the first marathon he’d registered for, to go for it. “There is no shame in starting and dropping out”, I’d said. “But if you do finish, you will remember that event for the rest of your life”. Today, he thanked me for it on a public forum.
The deeds you do are like seeds. Once they scatter, you don’t know what happens to them. Most fall on barren ground, or are trampled underfoot. But sometimes, some take root and grow. And when that happens, you can feel proud.

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This is the fifth year that I am going to be a part of NaBloWriM. The writing mojo seems to have deserted me, but by elaborating either on a quote that touches my heart, or by attempting to capture a fleeting emotion, let me see how long I last.