Please comment below, if you know more about this plant...
গাছটি সম্পর্কে কারো কাছে অধিক তথ্য থাকলে নীচে মন্তব্য করুন...
শেওড়া গাছের নাম শুনলেই প্রথমে আসে ভূত, পেত্নী, শাকচুন্নির কথা. ভুতের বইগুলোতে অনেক উল্লেখ আছে এই অদ্ভূত গাছটার. এত ঘন ঝোপালো একটা গাছ, আর গাছের ডালপালা মনে হবে একটা আরেকটার সাথে জোড়া লেগে আছে. এইসব বৈশিষ্টের কারণে এই গাছ বেয়ে উপরে উঠা অনেকটা অসম্ভবই. সম্ভবত এই কারণে এই গাছের সাথে ভূতেদের এত সক্ষতা পাওয়া যায় গল্পের বইতে. গ্রামের দিকে অনেক লোক আছে যারা রাত্রে বেলায় এই গাছের পাশ দিয়ে হেটে যেতে ভয় পাবে. আমি ভুতে বিশ্বাস করিনা, কিন্তু তার পরও রাত্রে বেলায় এই গাছের পাশ দিয়ে হেটে যেতে সময় একটু হলেও আমার গা ছম ছম করে উঠে.
There are very few trees which having direct connection with the ghosts in children's ghost stories. Sheora Gachh(শেওড়া গাছ) is one of those. According to the stories female ghosts use to live on this trees at night. Those ghosts are always referred as Petni(পেত্নী), Shakchunni(শাকচুন্নি), etc. You'll find lot of people at village where they use to scare to pass beside this tree during night.
Anyway, botanical name of this tree is Trophis aspera. It belongs to the plant family Moraceae (mulberry family or fig family). In Bangladesh(বাংলাদেশ) we call this Sheora Gachh(শেওড়া গাছ). This plant is neither a weed nor an ornamental, neither it produces food nor you can use the wood from it. Only way you can use it at the burners as wood fuel.
The flower of this Sheora Plant(শেওড়া গাছ) is unisexual. Sheora Flower(শেওড়া ফুল) appears as a cluster at the stem of the plant. Color of the flower is creamy. Doesn't have any smell. I didn't see any fruit of this flower, but it must have.
This plant grows 5-7 meters in height. Small Leafs are dark green and a bit rough when mature, but slight glossy during young. After growing first few meters based on the main stem, it use to produces lot of dense stems(most of those are siamese) which made the tree almost difficult for climbing. Possibly this is the reason about why people related this plant with the ghosts.
ফুলের জন্য ভালবাসা, আমি বুনো ফুল...
Botanical name: Streblus asper [Trophis aspera-?]
ReplyDeleteFamily: Moraceae[mulberry/fig family]
English name: Sandpaper tree,Siamese rough bush,Tooth brush tree................
Bangla/Local name: Sheora [শেওড়া গাছ]
Native: Native to SE Asia,India,Sri Lanka,Bangladesh
Sheora grows as a medium-sized tree or shrub . The dark gray bark is rough.Male and female flowers on separate trees.Fruit is a small pea-sized berry,pale yellowto orange when ripe; pulp sweet edible.
Sometimes called Khoi-tree,Streblus asper was in paper production in Thailand for 700 years as a raw material for the so-called Khoi paper used. Virtually all of the ancient Thai documents have yet been written on paper-Khoi.
The paper can be maintained even in the local high humidity. It is not flammable and resistant to yellowing and insect infestation.
In Vietnam, the coarse-textured leaves are used as a natural sand paper for traditional woodworking.
In medieval times, its rough leaves were used to impart the last fine-grade polish to ivory.
During my childhood I have seen Sheora leaves are used for cleaning cooking utensils in village areas.
The seeds of the Sheora tree are known to be dispersed by termites, who drag them into their nests, where they germinate.
In Dhaka city you can find Sheora trees scattered in many places,particularly near Hair Road,Minto Road and also in other places.
To know more about Sheora and its medicinal properties please visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475940/