Some flowering trees of Rajasthan

Spring is usually a fleeting season in Rajasthan. No sooner has one started to put the woolens away, than Holi arrives, and last summer's mulmul shirts are quickly dug forth from storage trunks. It is in March too that some of our native trees remind us that the thar desert is not just all drab and brown.

I had occasion to make brief trips to Bhainsrorgarh (near Kota, in South Rajasthan) and to Mt. Abu in March 2016. 

Driving from Jaipur to Kota on the recently completed multi-lane highway (and through the tunnel which by-passes Bundi), has cut down driving time in large measure. En-route, hillsides blush scarlet at this time. Sadly, many of the flowering trees are stunted, some are mere bushes - the result of lopping and over-grazing. Yet the flowers are beautiful.

See if you can identify the species - lets call this one 'A'

Here is another tree when in flower looks confusingly similar to 'A' - let's call it 'B'.

'B'

'C' below here, has a somewhat restricted range compared to A and B. The hills of Mt. Abu were aflame with these trees at this time.

 Can you identify 'C'?

Next up is an iconic tree of the thar. These hardy trees are true desert specialists. The Marwar region, in particular, is where you would find them in any numbers.

'D' below 

I'm a little disappointed that I only have photos of yellow flowers of  D above. In fact, the colours vary considerably from orange to yellow. From a distance, the flowering trees seem to be laden with orange flowers, not yellow.

 'D' again 

'D' - the tree itself

And if we go back to 'C' again, here is another look at the flower:-

'C' 

Here is a view of C in full flower on a Mt. Abu hillside:-

'C' 

B, of course, is a tree commonly found in Indian cities.

'B'

The flowers are not the sole pointers to the identity of the trees above. There are other differences, such as the structure of the leaves, the formation of the branches, amongst others. 

See how many you were able to identify correctly from the key below:-

A = Butea monosperma (Flame of the Forest)

B = Bombax ceiba (Semal)

C = Erythrina variegata (Indian Coral Tree)

D = Tecomella undulata (Roheda)