This
Palm had been the centrepiece of our Walk till
January. There are other Talipot Palms
in Lalbagh, but the largest of them may still
take many years to flower. The Talipot /Fan
Palm (Tali palm) is indigenous to India and
Sri Lanka. It is found naturally growing in
the evergreen forests of Kumta in Karnataka.
The finest collection of Talipot Palms today
is in Surinam in South America having been brought
there by Indian immigrants. There is a grand
avenue of Talipot Palms in Royal Botanical Gardens,
Peradeniya , Sri Lanka.
Over
the centuries our writing materials have changed.
It would have been appropriate to have written
the obituary of this grand Palm on a palmleaf
prepared from a frond of the Palm itself, which
was the manner in which manuscripts/books-documents
in South India were prepared for centuries. |