Kadam (কদম ফুল) - Neolamarckia cadamba

Bengali Name :	Kodom ful (কদম ফুল), Nip (নীপ), Kodombo (কদম্ব).
Common Name :	Kadam, Cadamba, Burflower, Common bur flower.
Botanical Name :	Neolamarckia cadamba
Synonym :	Anthocephalus cadamba, Anthocephalus indicus
Family :	Rubiaceae

এসো নীপ বনে, ছায়া বিথী তলে
এসো, করো স্নান নব ধারা জলে
এসো নীপ বনে

গানটার মধ্যেই বলা আছে এই বাংলায় কদমের সাথে বর্ষার যে একটা সুদৃঢ় বন্ধন আছে। কদমের আরেক নাম নীপ, আর বছরের প্রথম বৃষ্টিতে কবি গুরু রবীন্দ্রনাথ আহবান করেছেন এই কদমের বনে ভিজতে। এই বাংলার অতিপরিচিত কিন্তু অসম্ভব সুন্দর একটি ফুল এই কদম। বর্ষার বৃষ্টির ফোটায় সিক্ত কদমের সাথে ওই মুহুর্তে অন্য কোনো ফুলের তুলনা চলে কিনা আমি জানি না। আমার এই লেখার ফুলগুলো বসন্তের শেষে তোলা (অসময়ে)। আর এখন বর্ষাকাল চলছে, কিন্তু গাছে এখনও কদম দেখলাম না। বাংলাদেশের ঋতু চক্রের পরিবর্তন খুব ভালোমতনই হয়েছে মনে হয়!

Kadam (কদম) is one of the finest and most attractive flowers during the rainy season. This flower is endemic to the South Asia and partly to Southeast Asian region. That's why it doesn't have any known English or common name (though people call this as burflower). That's why it is mostly known as the local name, Kadam (কদম). In Bengali we have several other names for this flower which are Nipo (নিপ), Kodombo (কদম্ব), etc.

Botanical name of flowering plant is Neolamarckia cadamba. The genus name has chosen to honor the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. This plant belongs to the plant family Rubiaceae. It has several synonyms which are Anthocephalus cadamba, Anthocephalus indicus, etc.

Kadam (কদম) is a very tall growing single trunk evergreen plant having small to large leafs. Leafs are oppositely arranged with slightly long petiole. A deep texture is found on the leafs (alternately arranged veins). Upper side of the leaf is glossy and the lower side is veined for those textures. Top of the plant is having a shape of umbrella most of the cases (because the villagers use to prune the branches from the lower part of the tree. It is a fast growing plant.

Shape of the Kadam flower (কদম ফুল) is like a small ball. The color of the ball is yellowish or orange (some reported about red one too, but I didn't see yet). The ball is surrounded by lot of long white frills (can be style or stamen, i don't know). For such lovely orientation the flower looks extraordinarily beautiful. Flowers are having a mild fragrance.

Initial flower buds are small ball shaped and having no furry things, and they are green. A Kadam (কদম) tree brings flower usually within 4-5 years are planting. Blooming season is usually the rainy season, but these days we can see this in other nearby seasons too.

I have never seen the fruit of Kadam (কদম), or you can say I didn't notice this carefully. But most of the cases the flowers use to get fallen from the trees and makes the underneath messy. For this reason my grandfather uses to chop down this tree when they start flowering, and then plant a new baby plant in that place. Such a pity though!

The timber from this plant is not that much handy. It is useful as a raw material for the papers. Also using as a fuel at the burners is handy too. Around our village area this tree grows naturally, but around the city area this is being cherished as an ornamental plant.

Photos of this article were taken from Bangladesh as mentioned below:
1) 03 April 2015: Agargaon, Dhaka (আগারগাঁও, ঢাকা).


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

ফুলের জন্য ভালোবাসা, আমি বুনো ফুল...