Neolamarckia cadamba

Rubiaceae Week :: Neolamarckia cadamba at Mumbai:
Bot. name: Neolamarckia cadamba
Family: Rubiaceae
Date/Time: 10th may, / 10:00AM
Location: Sagar Upvan, Colaba, Mumbai.
Habitat: Garden
Plant Habit: Tree.

Rubiaceae Week : Neolamarckia cadamba Pune:
Neolamarckia cadamba A large native tree.
Syn. Anthocephalus cadamba.
कदंब

Beautiful Shot of head

Another beauty. Now we should say ” Kadamb- Kadamb Badaye Jaa… Rubiaceae ke Geet Gaye Jaa”..

SYMBIOSIS:   Attaching two images on symbiosis,
( a ) Redvented Bulbul on Kadam (Anthochephalus cadamba)
( b ) Redvented Bulbul on Nim(Azadirachta indica).

Large Leaf tree Sapling Is it Tectona Grandis? UD 8212011 002:
On 14th August zipping by on this street on the way to post office I noticed these humongous leaves…
thought it might be Tectona Grandis….
Next day went back and took pictures and talked to the local folks who run tea stalls and some Bhujia shops on the sidewalk (only they were around to talk to ) , one of the guys said it grew very fast… this height see figure 1, was achieved in just 3 months…. some branches had come out near the ground which he said he cut them off… some others said it was a kadam gachh (gachh = tree in bengali) …
sure!!! dont beleive it!!!
The leaves are very large… 1.5 feet wide by 2.5 feet long… I measured it… see figures 2 and 3… to me the leaf shape just does not match what I remember as tectona grandis…. am confused…
I rubbed the leaf underside, even wetted it with saliva..and rubbed … no red color developed… see figure 6, the white arrows surround the wetted rubbed surface, you can still see a little shine?… of cource its the lower leaf … not the uppermost “young leaf”… but in the past no matter which leaf I tested on already identified Teconia grandis, I got the red color, in Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and even in USA.. at a botanical Garden …
Currently there are no branches…
The tree came up on its own.. in harsh broken stony fragments containing soil… see figure..7.
Date/Time- 8/15/2011
Location- Place, Altitude, GPS- Sea level or slightly below it, Ganges plain , Streets of Kolkata,.
Habitat- Garden/ Urban/ Wild/ Type- came up on its own per local history
Plant Habit- Tree/ Shrub/ Climber/ Herb- Tree
Height/Length- Sapling about 10 feet or 11 feet
Leaves Type/ Shape/ Size- very large, 2.5 by 1.5 foot (foot, not inches)
Inflorescence Type/ Size- NONE yet
Flowers Size/ Colour/ Calyx/ Bracts- NA
Fruits Type/ Shape/ Size Seeds-NA
Other Information like Fragrance, Pollinator, Uses etc.- NA
NA= not applicable
Please help…..

Negative. This is Kadam [Neolamarckia cadamba].

with such large leaves…
there is a kadam tree here, leaves are about 6,7,or 8 inches long at the most…
but this one has 30 inches long leaves???

Have encountered such variations. Please go and check the tree again.

I have a great deal of respect for your diagnostic abilities…
and I had indeed doubts about my suspected idea… because of the leaf shape, color and NO redness when rubbed……
BUT …. the size of the leaves throws me..still..
AND I took the pictures on 15th August… nothing would have changed in these 6 says…
But yes I will go back in a months time and take more pictures… and I’ll repeat it till is fully grown…over the years… would be a nice project…
This may be an interesting fact …in the life history of Kadam… may be saplings’ first leaves are humongous to manufacture as much food as quickly as possible and grow fast…. till its higher // closer to the sun… this sapling apprantly grew sooo tall in the span of three months…
May be we need a section of “Pediatric Biology ” in Botany… growth patterns and anatomy of saplings… which may be very different than the mature tree…. ha ha ..

yes, Neolamarckia cadamba

I am not convinced its THE KADAMBA tree with a normal Genetic code…..
I personally think it may have be a genetic malformation of it..
UPDATE… about month after these pictures were taken… the leaves became brown, withered and drooped down, didn’t have a camera so no pics … and next day when I went back to take pictures the KMC folks had cut down the tree so no pics… I have meant to update this thread…
I wish I had stopped and taken samples from the stem to preserve for genetic analysis…. but I was too much of a rush and had no camera with me… and next day I was so much shocked that I did not go near the stump… I should have and taken a piece then… but I learned a lesson… In future I will act better than be a silent spectator and grieve at the death of a promising life form…
GOING BACK TO KADAMBA trees… see my detailed pictures above…
This sapling had two feet long and almost 18 inches wide leaf… never seen something like that…in a kadamba…
Although the leaf size seems to be quite variable… in Kadamba trees in Kolkata…
I find that that the ones with flowers have the smallest leaves (5-6 “) of all Kadambas I see on streets of Kolkata, the flowerless “kadamba” trees have somewhat larger ( up to 9″ ) darker leaves…
different species????
===
If this sapling was a kadamba… spontaneous dying off was perhaps akin to a deformed human (or any mammalian) foetus aborting itself due to genetic malformations or genetic chemical variability so much so that the survival of the newborn life would be unsustainable… since mother nature repeats pattenrs and processes … its the only explanation I can think of that makes sense to me…
other reason could be environmental.. that the pavement where it was growing could not have sustained it…
…: If its filed under kadamba in our website… it should have a note that it was most likely a genetic malformation and similar sapling(s) when discovered would need genetic studies…
PS I dont doubt … and …. diagnosis , but am bothered by the uniqueness of its leaf size.. and I thank you both for your help…
if it was not planted as the locals claimed that it was spontaneous sprouting… then the seeds from the mother tree where it flew out from must have also sprouted in the neighborhood… I have crisscrossed the street and gone to every park .. and green grass patch in about a 8 – 10 block area.. have not seen a single kadamba sapling, let alone a one with such large leaves…

Anthocephalus cadamba