Konok Chapa - Ochna squarrosa

Common Name :	Mickey Mouse Plant, Ramdhan Champa, Golden champak.
Botanical Name :	Ochna squarrosa
Synonym :	Ochna obtusata
Family :	Ochnaceae
Bengali Name :	Konok Chapa (কনকচাঁপা ফুল), Ramdhan Chapa (রামধন চাঁপা ফুল).
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh.

It is a very beautiful attractive but rare flower in Bangladesh. We know this as Konok Chapa in Bangladesh, but it has several other names like Ramdhan Chapa, Muchkundo Chapa [or simply Muchkundo], etc. It is a native plant to our Bangladesh along with few other countries from this Indian subcontinent. Common or English names of the flower are Mickey Mouse Plant, Ramdhan Champa, Golden champak, etc. Binomial name of this beautiful flowering plant is Ochna squarrosa.

Though the plant's name is Chapa, but actually it doesn't belong to the Chapa family, rather it belongs to a different plant family named Ochnaceae. The English name is the Golden Champak which literally means Shorno Chapa in Bengali. But we have a different flower by that name. That's why the experts have chosen the name Konok Chapa. And for your information, in Bengali the word Konok also means golden or gold.

Konok Chapa (Ochna squarrosa) is a small growing deciduous plant (or shrub) that can reach in between 5-8 ft in height. It is a single stem plant having branched at the top. It drops all its leafs during the winter and brings lovely glossy coffee or red colored leafs during spring. Leafs are 6-12 cm long and obovate or elliptic in shape. Mature leafs are green and having a lovely foliage. Leafs are smooth at the upper side and slightly rough at the bottom side.

Blooming season for the Konokchapa flower (Ochna squarrosa) is end of the spring (which is March - early April) here in Bangladesh. This can be a small shrubby plant but brings numerous showy golden yellow flowers. It brings the flower when there is the verdant coffee or red colored leafs. Later the plant gets covered with green leafs but the plant still keep growing flowers for few weeks, and then stop blooming.

I have already mentioned that the flower Konok Chapa (Ochna squarrosa) is an attractive flower. Flowers bloom as a cluster and the small buds are capsule like. Small flowers are yellow, golden in color. It has 8-12 lens like petals. At the center it has a long style having a stigma atop. The style is surrounded by lot of yellow-orange filaments. This flower is full with pollens and attracts lot of bees and other insects.

After the successful pollination the Konok Chapa flower turns into a fruit which is green initially. The bracts of the flower turns into red and covers those fruits. Small fruits are attached to the round object which I don't know what it is (may be a portion of the fruit? But it was the ovary when it was a flower). Anyway, the number of such green things are 3-5 and when they drop out from the fruit then that looks like a shape of a Mickey Mouse [please check bellow for such images]. That's why this plant is also known as Mickey mouse plant.

Another thing I forgot to mention, this flower is highly appreciated for its fragrance. It is a highly scented flower. But I didn't find that much strong smell from the tree when it was fully bloomed. I could be because of my nose problem, or could be our environment that is too much polluted. People used to keep this flower in between the books and garments for the lovely fragrance.

As I told you before, this a rare plant in Bangladesh these days. We have only few trees around. As per my knowledge we have two trees, one at the Romna park, and another one at Shishu Academy premise. Both are at Dhaka. My photos were taken from the Romna park. You have to enter inside the park through the Orunodoy gate and have to reach near the nursery which is at the other side. Then you have to turn right and walk for a while. Or you can enter inside through the Nursery gate as well. The GPS coordinate of the Konok Chapa (Ochna squarrosa) plant is (23°44'25.24"N, 90°23'55.53"E). This was planted by the great boss Professor Dwijen Sharma.

I have a plan to collect the seed of this plant and then plant it to my village. I don't know whether I'll be succeeded or not, but I'll give a try. For your information, this plant can be propagated using the seeds of from hard wood cutting. But from seed it will be faster and from cutting it will be very slow growing.

This beautiful flowering plant has few medicinal uses. Few uses are for digestion, against the snake bite, inflammation, and to fix menstrual problem for females.

The plant with coffee colored leafs during March.

Same plant with mature green leaf during April.

The green fruit of the plant.

It looks like Mickey Mouse, isn't it?

Lovely fruit of the plant.

Photos of this article were taken from the country Bangladesh. It was inside the Ramna park of Dhaka. This was planted by the great professor Dwijen Sharma who is renowned for his work with the plants in Bangladesh. GPS coordinate of the Konokchapa plant is (23°44'25.24"N, 90°23'55.53"E). I have taken the photos during various dates as mentioned below:

1) 26 March 2015: Flowers with coffee or red colored leafs.
2) 03 April 2015: Flowers with green mature leafs.
3) 29 April 2015: Mickey mouse like fruit and no flower on tree.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/