Rare plants to adorn Rock Garden

Very soon, one will be spared of the trouble of travelling all the way to Golconda Fort to have a glimpse of Baobab tree.

Buddha Purnima Project of HMDA is planning to introduce into the Sanjeevaiah Park, a host of Baobabs sharing their genus with the 700-year-old ‘Haathion ka Jhaad’ (Adansonia digitata) near Golconda Fort. Of the eight existing species, six have already been acquired to be part of the Rock Garden being developed inside the park.


“We have acquired Baobabs as part of our collection of Pachycauls in the rock garden. They include, apart from digitata, grandidieri, madagascariensis , perrieri, fony, and za. Most of them originate from Madagascar Island while digitata belongs to Africa. We are trying to bring the missing two, gibbosa from Australia and suarezensis from Madagascar, which are very rare. All belong to Adansonia genus, better known as baobab,” informed an official from BPP. Pachycauls, also known as caudex, are the desert succulents, typified by thick, swollen stem and leafless, short branches.
Aura

They promise special aura to the rock garden by enhancing the simulated look of desert. “Apart from Baobabs, we brought other such kinds including Pachira, Brachychiton, Cochlospermum and Bombax, among others. Another attraction will be Lithophytes, ficuses stemming from the rocks,” informed the official.

The eight-acre rock garden, the one of its kind in the whole of South India, will have 600 species of plants. About 400, mainly constituting cacti and succulents, have already been acquired and planted.

Pachypodium, Firmiana colorata, Hura crepitans, Operculicarya, Commiphora and Boswellia are some other interesting pachycauls. They all came from plant collectors at Delhi and Bangalore, who obtain seeds from Bangkok’s famous plant market Chatuchak, and propagate them.

“We found a patch of natural rocky terrain upon scouting the park for theme-park locations. We immediately decided to have a rock garden there. For six months, we have been collecting various species of flora, indigenous and exotic, for it. The garden is likely to be inaugurated in a month,” informed the official.

Moonlight Garden, with theme colour as white and Nandanavanam, the garden of sacred plants are the other attractions being developed in the park.