Pankaj Oudhia
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to efloraofindia
Dear Group Members,
I received an interesting query. Please go through it and share your comments.
regards
Pankaj Oudhia
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Dear Mr. Oudhia,
I was watching an older Ritwik Ghatak movie (Cloud-Capped Star; 1960), and a
couple of scenes included views of a road flanked by large trees (see attached
screenshot). As you likely know, Ghatak was a Bengali director, and this move
was filmed in West Bengal. I wrote to Dorrie Rosen at the New York Botanical
Garden to see if she could identify the tree from this distant view (and w/o
closeup images of the leaves, etc.). As can be read from the thread of
comments, she was guessing Banyan, but also suggested it could be a Devil tree
(Alstonia scholaris) or Ficus religiosa syn. Urostigma religiosum (sacred Bodhi
tree). Because we don't have close-ups of the foliage, she suggested contacting
an Indian expert. So ... any idea what this tree is? This is mostly out of
curiosity, rather than any scientific need.
Thanks much,
Jim Borowiec
Cloud_Capped_Star trees.jpg