Saraca asoca

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Saraca asoca
Saraca asoca, inflorescences: young flowers (yellow-orange) and old flowers (red)

Saraca asoca , inflorescences: young flowers (yellow-orange) and old flowers (red)

Systematics
Order : Fabales (Fabales)
Family : Legumes (Fabaceae)
Subfamily : Carob family (Caesalpinioideae)
Tribe : Detarieae
Genre : Saraca
Type : Saraca asoca
Scientific name
Saraca asoca
( Roxb. ) WJde Wilde

Saraca asoca is a species within the family of leguminous plants (Fabaceae). The natural home is the Indian subcontinent : Bangladesh , India as well as Sri Lanka and western Myanmar . The Sanskrit designation ashoka means "no worries", is derived from this sometimes, but also a different kind Ashokabaum called.

description

Pair of pinnate, leathery leaves
Ashoka tree with leaves and inflorescences

Appearance and leaf

Saraca asoca grows as an evergreen, upright small tree and reaches heights of maximum 8 to 12 meters. It branches out early; its branches form a wide-spreading crown.

The stalked leaves are 30 cm long and pinnate in pairs with only four to six pairs of pinnate leaves. The bare, leathery pinnate leaves are relatively large and elongated or lanceolate with a length of 10 to 20 cm. The small, intrapetiolaren stipules fall off early.

Inflorescence, flower, fruit and seeds

The flowering period in Pakistan extends from January to May. many flowers stand close together in an umbrella-like inflorescence. There are small, early withering, colored bracts . The cover sheets are colored.

The flowers give off an intense fragrance. The hermaphrodite flowers are weakly zygomorphic and four-fold. The sepals sit on the 1.2 to 1.7 cm high tubular flower cup (hypanthium). The four petals -like, only almost identical sepals are oval. The color of the sepals changes in the course of the anthesis from initially yellow to yellow-orange to scarlet red at the end. There are no petals . There are one or two circles with four stamens each; they tower above the sepals. The stamens are long and the anthers are just almost the same. The single stalked carpel contains many ovules . The thin stylus is bent into a ring and almost as long as the stamens.

The 15 to 25 cm long legume opens when ripe and contains four to eight seeds.

distribution

The natural distribution area of Saraca asoca extends from the Malay Peninsula , Myanmar, Assam , Bangladesh and eastern Pakistan as well as southern India to Sri Lanka .

Saraca asoca was rated for the Indian subcontinent in 1998 in the red list of endangered species as "Vulnerable" = "endangered"; it is necessary to collect new data. The forestry surveys in Sri Lanka did not reveal any find, this may mean that this species has been lost in Sri Lanka or is very rare.

Taxonomy

It was first published in 1795 under the name ( Basionym ) Jonesia asoca Roxb. by William Roxburgh in Asiatic Researches , 4 p. 355. The new combination to Saraca asoca took place in 1968 by Willem Jan Jacobus Oswald de Wilde in Blumea , Volume 15, p. 393. Another synonym for Saraca asoca (Roxb.) De Wilde is Saraca indica L.

use

Saraca asoca is used as an ornamental plant.

In the northern part of Sri Lanka the wood was used to build houses. The bark is used to treat uterine infections and as an astringent in cases of internal hemorrhoids .

Cultural meaning

Under the name of Ashoka ( अशोक aśoka ) belongs saraca asoca the most prominent plants in Sanskrit describes gasket. The Ashoka tree is said to long for the touch of a beautiful woman's foot and burst into flowers as soon as she touched it. The blossoming of the Ashoka tree is also often mentioned in descriptions of spring. Its bright red flowers are compared to blood, rubies or corals, and because of the shape of the inflorescence, also to female breasts. The sight of the Ashoka flowers is said to bring joy to lovers. The name Ashoka, literally "without heartache", is derived from this. But at the same time it creates grief in those who are separated from their loved ones. So which describes the poet Kalidasa (400) attributed seal Ritusamhara the blossoming of Ashoka trees in spring, playing with the contrast between "Ashoka Tree / kummerlos" ( अशोक aśoka ) and "sorrowful" ( सशोक saśoka ):

“आमूलतो विद्रुमरागताम्रं सपल्लवाः पुष्पचयं दधानाः
कुर्वन्त्यशोका हृदयं सशोकं निरीक्ष्यमाणा नवयौवनानाम्.”

“ Āmūlato vidrumarāgatāmraṃ sapallavāḥ puṣpacayaṃ dadhānāḥ
kurvantyaśokā hṛdayaṃ saśokaṃ nirīkṣyamāṇā navayauvanānām. "

“And all the branches of the aśoka bush are
covered with bright red flowers everywhere.
As
soon as she discovers him, he fills the hearts of all beautiful young women with deep sorrow. "

- Rite Amhara 6.16 (trans. Johannes Mehlig)

The common name of Saraca asoca in most modern Indian languages ​​is derived from the Sanskrit name Ashoka . The term Ashoka tree is also common in English . The Artepitethon asoca also indicates the Sanskrit name.

swell

  • Syed Irtifaq Ali: Caesalpiniaceae in the Flora of Pakistan , Volume 54, Department of Botany, University of Karachi: Saraca asoca .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Saraca asoca in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved February 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Syed Irtifaq Ali: Caesalpiniaceae in the Flora of Pakistan , Volume 54, Department of Botany, University of Karachi: Saraca asoca .
  3. ↑ Saraca asoca in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014.3. Listed by: CAMP Workshops on Medicinal Plants, India (January 1997), 1998. Retrieved May 13, 2015.
  4. ^ Saraca asoca at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed February 11, 2013.
  5. ↑ Gordon Cheers (Ed.): Botanica. The ABC of plants. 10,000 species in text and images . Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft, 2003, ISBN 3-8331-1600-5 (therein p. 821).
  6. ↑ Renate Syed: The flora of ancient India in literature and art, dissertation, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich 1990, pp. 77–85.
  7. ^ Kālidāsa: Works, translation, epilogue and explanations by Johannes Mehlig, Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., 1983, p. 273.

Supplementary literature

  • DV Cowen: Flowering Trees and Shrubs in India. Thacker and Co. Ltd., Bombay 1984

Web links

Commons : Saraca asoca  - collection of images, videos and audio files