Watch out for this cannon ball tree and this is in Sikkim!!

I had read an article on a cannonball tree a few months back in a Science Reporter magazine and to come across something like that in front of me, I never expected it to happen so soon. I was off to the jungle of Chisopani, Singtam along with my father and Naresh, a helper to repair our household water pipes.

As usual, my camera was with me, I had carried my camera along with me, who knows what awaits you! All the way with a nip of moments I was clicking off photographs of the wild nature. Our small self-made water tank lies near the stream that flows all from Saang. I was clearing off the dry leaves and the dead twigs that had fallen into the tank. My father and Naresh were working on the other side of the water pipes.

All of a sudden I was attracted by the broken cup-shaped fruits on the ground and some pieces scattered over the tank too. As I looked up to the nearby trees I was spellbound, I could see a few more round shape structures attached to the tree trunk. As I moved to the other side of the rock I could see more round-shaped things attached to the trunk.

The moment I got closer to it, I was asking myself if this was the very ‘cannonball tree’ I had read earlier. Many thoughts were evolving to my small brain as I was approaching near it. Nevertheless, I had it in my mind that I shall search about this thing on the internet. I clicked a few photographs out there.  I believe there were around 50-60 round fruits brown in colour.

Back home I searched about ‘cannonball tree’ on the internet, though there is a similarity with those found on the other side of the world this one was slightly different. Locally this plant is called 'Gantey' in the Nepali language. The local expert extracts edible oil from its fruits. I did not see any flowers on the tree and most of the cannonball fruits had dried up.