Temple plant - Crataeva religiosa

Bengali Name :	Borun (বরুন ফুল), Barna (বর্ণা ফুল), Boinna (বৈন্যা ফুল).
Common Name :	Temple plant, Sacred garlic pear, Spider tree.
Botanical Name :	Crataeva religiosa
Synonym :	Crateva religiosa
Family :	Capparaceae

The binomial name of the flower is Crataeva religiosa, and if you notice the species name religiosa then you'd probably have realized that the name is related to something religion. And yes it is, this is a sacred flowering plant in India. The leafs of this plant use to worship the Lord Siva (শিব) during the Mahashivaratri (মহা শিবরাত্রি).

It has several common names such as Temple plant, Sacred garlic pear, Spider tree, etc. In Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) it also has several names such as Borun (বরুণ/বরুন), Borna (বর্ণা), Boinna (বৈন্যা), etc. This plant belongs to the family Capparaceae, and native to the Indian subcontinent along with Southeast Asia.

Spider tree (বরুণ / বরুন ফুল) is a medium sized deciduous plant that is widely available around the Bangladesh (not in Dhaka city). Leafs are trifoliate and aromatic when crushed. Slightly glossy leafs are linearly elliptic and occurs as a cluster with a common petiole. This plant mostly found around the river bank and wetland area.

These are not flower buds, rather these are filament of flower bud.

Flowers are a real beauty of the plant. This plant brings the showy flower profusely. It has four petals which are initially white but later turns into yellowish white (or creamy) in color. Similar to the leafs the flowers also bloom as a cluster. The arrangement of the petals on the flower is not symmetric. All four petals are at the one half of the flower and other half is empty.

The tree at the edge of the Botanical garden.

Temple plant (বরুণ ফুল) flowers are having lot of stamens which are very long and dark purple in color. The filament atop of the stamen also having the same color. The flower buds are slightly different for this flower. Unlike the other flowers these are having stamens and style open (not covered with bract or petals). And the filaments are slightly larger and resembles as a flower bud itself.

Fruits are round shaped and having a color of whitish green or greyish green. They are having a hard shell around and produce a very bad smell when broken. But still this fruit is having few medicinal value (I can't remember any right now).

Notice the yellow flowers around the whites.

This plant is abundantly occurs around the districts Manikganj (মানিকগঞ্জ), Munsiganj (মুন্সিগঞ্জ) along with others near the wetlands (হাওর). Flower blooms during the Spring (March-April) here in Bangladesh and the fruits are available around the rainy season. In some parts the villagers use to fry the green leaf to eat with rice.

Temple plant (বরুণ) is a highly revered medicinal plant. The bark, extract of the root, etc are the main ingredients. Apart from these the leafs are very useful to ripen the green fruits quickly in a natural way. But these days people do not use this technique as the Calcium carbide is widely available and cheap.

Fruits of Temple plant.

Photos of this article were taken from Bangladesh as mentioned below.
1) 03 March 2015: Botanical garden, Mirpur, Dhaka (মিরপুর, ঢাকা).
   It was near the western wall of the premise (beside a pond).
   The GPS coordinate is (23°49'20.98"N, 90°20'42.19"E).


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

ফুলের জন্য ভালোবাসা, আমি বুনো ফুল...