Ganesh Pradhan, Sikkim State Awardee, founder of famed
Ram Gauri Sangralaya and Evergreen Nursery from Rhenock called me up last week and
very excitedly said – my Nolina plant gave flower. I could feel his happiness
that could be compared to excitement of a child. Over the years, Ganesh Aja (my relationship with him) had
always shared his happiness with me and when he talked about the flowering of a
plant, I too felt there was something special.
He told me this species of flowers in thirty years. He
had never seen or heard this flower bloom in any part of Sikkim till now. To
me, this flower was exceptional and I felt it should be documented. I don’t deny
the fact that this plant might have flowered in Sikkim but documentation is
important, so my interest grew in it.
Beaucarnea recurvata, locally known as Nolina or most popularly identified
as Elephant’s foot or Pony Tail palm is a xerophyte flowering plant. Native of
Mexico, this plant is one of the most popular ornamental species. Nolina plant
has some peculiar features – the swollen trunk that looks like an elephant foot,
single slender palm-like stem with hair like strap-shaped leathery leaves,
resembling a ponytail on its top. These plants are slow growers and adaptable
to dry land.
For a few days, I was regularly in touch with Aja asking him about the plant and its
flower. Around 1980, he had seen Nolina plant at Chandra Nursery, legendary
plant nursery of Rhenock for the very first time. Interested in plants and fascinated
by their unfamiliar appearance, he bought four Nolina plants from Chandra Nursery.
Those plants were then two and a half years old. Among the four, only two Nolina plants had survived over
the years. The older of the two has a trunk of 12 feet but strangely it had not
flowered. The next Nolina plant having the trunk measurement of 8 feet flowered
during the first week of June, this year, told Aja.
The flowering of this plant after thirty years gave me
and my family emotional happiness that cannot be explained. He further went
on to say, when I first saw its yellow (it is more correctly ivory colour) panicle
flowers in the early morning, I hurriedly called upon my wife and my sons. We saw
the flower of Nolina for the very first time. Those flowers stayed for two
weeks and later dried up. Today I have sixteen Nolina plants in my nursery. One of them has decayed at its
trunk and I have experimented with it in bonsai, he told.
When I am writing this article, Rhenock is facing the
crisis of corona pandemic and this plant-man from Rhenock is busy nurturing his
plants, who knows which plant surprises him the next.
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