Numerous flowers bloom during monsoon adding colour to the season. They include the golden flowers of Rattlepod, trumpet-shaped flowers of Ipomoea (Morning Glory), Abutilon indicum (Mudra) and Mirabilis jalapa. Morning glory flowers stay only for a few hours in the morning while Mudra flowers do not bloom till noon. Tanner's cassia, known for its herbal properties, is another lovely monsoon flower. Called Thangadi in Kannada, its leaves were used to tan leather in the days of yore.
The sticky white flowers of Plumbago zeylanica (Chitrak) are highly valued for their digestive and carminative uses. Another unique flower that we find in monsoon is Gloriosa superba (Agnishikhe). Indian Postal Department has issued a postal stamp to commemorate this flower. Also known as Glory lily, it is the only known climbing lily. It even climbs with the help of its leaves! The roots of the plant are used in the treatment of snakebites. All these flowers attract honeybees and butterflies.
These are the flowers I found while I made my way through the prickly lantana plants into a meadow on the outskirts of Bengaluru recently. It was heartening to see these wild flowers thriving in some pockets, in spite of rapid urbanisation.
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