Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pongam or Honge or Indian Beech Tree

Pongam or Honge (Pongamia pinnata) as it's called is a native of India and grows in profusion, generally planted as avenue trees by the forest department. It's renowned for its shade and is well known in traditional uses for its medicinal properties. It is also grown as a host plant for lac insects. The tree is also one of the food plants for Common Cerulean (Jamides celeno). The seeds contain pongam oil - a red brown inedible oil - that is now being explored as an alternate fuel source. This was shot at Cubbon park.

Here are a few more pictures from Foodista
Indian Beech on Foodista

Contact: [email protected]

No comments: