Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) Ixora undulata

Bengali Name :	Polok jui (পলক জুঁই), Polokjui (পলকজুঁই).
Common Name :	Polok Jui.
Botanical Name :	Ixora undulata
Family :	Rubiaceae

জুঁই গোত্রের না হলেও নাম কিন্তু ঠিকই পলকজুঁই। বরং রঙ্গনের সাথে বেশি মিল এই ফুলের (আর একই গোত্রের)। এই গাছের সাথে প্রথম পরিচয় রমনা পার্কে। অত্যন্ত তীব্র মিষ্টি একটা ঘ্রাণ আছে ফুলের। সকালে বা বিকালে হাটার সময় ফুলের এই মিষ্টি গন্ধটা দূর থেকে পেলেই বুঝতাম গাছের কাছে চলে এসেছি। আশেপাশের বাতাস ভারী হয়ে থাকে ফুলের গন্ধে। মনে হয় আরেকটু দাড়াই গাছটার নিচে। সময়টা ছিল মার্চ মাসের মাঝামাঝি। তার মানে বসন্তের সময়ই এই ফুলের আবির্ভাব। পরে আর অন্য সময় এই ফুল দেখি নাই গাছে। ঢাকার রমনা পার্কে পলকজুঁই এর কয়েকটি গাছ ছড়িয়ে ছিটিয়ে আছে।

Our today's flower is native to India, and very rarely seen in our country Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ). I don't know any English name of this flower unfortunately. In Bengali we call this Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) or polka jui (পলকা জুঁই). So I believe it will be fair to call this flower as Polok jui in English too.

The name of this flower Jui can confuse you as that is a different flower and known as Jasmine in English. But our flower Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) has the similarity with the flowers those belong to the genus Ixora. More specifically with the flower White snow ball ixora. In fact lot of people call this flower by that name too. But Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) is a different flower and its binomial name is Ixora undulata and belongs to the plant family Rubiaceae.

It is a small to medium growing plant (or you can say large shrub) that can reach up to four meter in height. It is an evergreen plant with lot of small branches and plenty of leafs. Long green, dark green leafs are 8-12 centimeter long and oppositely arranged with a shape elliptic-lanceolate. Leaf has a very short petiole and slightly broad near the end,

Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) flowers bloom as a cluster (ball shape) and the tree brings flower profusely. Color of the cluster is greenish before blooming. Color of the flower is white, creamy white after blooming. Flower has a long tube and top of that it has four small petals. In between the petal it has a stamen with golden filament attached.

Polok jui (পলক জুঁই) flower is renowned for its fragrance, not the beauty. Blooming season is end of Spring and the beginning of the summer which is March-April. Surrounding area of the tree gets heavy with the fragrance of the flower. Lot of small insects, wasps, bees, etc use to get attracted by the smell of the flower.

This plant can propagate from the seed or from the root (interesting!). We should spread this plant all around the country so that we do not call this a rare plant anymore!

Inside the Ramna park (রমনা পার্ক) of Dhaka you'll find several Polok jui (পলকজুঁই) trees scattered. GPS coordinate of one such tree is [23°44'12.96"N, 90°24'9.01"E]. And it is near from the gate beside Kakrail mosque (কাকরাইল মসজিদ).

Photos of this article were taken from Bangladesh as mentioned below:
1) 17 March 2015: Romna park, Dhaka (রমনা পার্ক, ঢাকা).


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