Alstonia scholaris

– We noted Some Bark scraping in Konkan region. Can anybody tell for which purpose this bark is used???

– I read somewhere that the bark is used in the treatment of diabetes.

– according to info. in the book ‘Trees of Mumbai’ pg 51 …” In olden days the wood of this tree was used  to make slates for children, hence scholaris.” The book further adds “The dita bark of the  tree is used in Indian medecine for treating asthma and heart ailments, fever and  diarrhoea. During the Diwali festival, the bitter bark is consumed before eating sweets to neutralize the excessive intake of sugar.”

– Useful Link

“Type II Diabetes and Alstonia scholaris”
http://www.google.com/searchalstonia+diabete…

– A little trivia: Large branches of the big Alstonia scholaris tree behind the house I temporarily stay in Delhi was cut down ostensibly to allow the sun rays on the flower bed in the small park. Apparently, the local garden
community had this tree trimmed by the NDMC authorities. But it wouldn’t surprise me if branches of trees are cut to allow the sun in winter to warm up courtyards that are otherwise completely blotted from the the sun. I have seen it happen. Before it was trimmed the flowers were within touching distance from the 2nd floor terrace. There are several trees such as Semul (Bombax malabaricum) and Siris (Albizia lebbek) growing in small, old colony roads whose branches have spread widely blocking sunlight in homes. They could be trimmed especially, if old people want to sit out and soak in the sun during Delhi’s winters…and this winter its really cold.

– One of the local names of Alstonia scholaris is CHHATIM or CHATNI CHAAL.
The bark is supposed to be very useful for blood purification especially in case of diabetes or Jaundice in Jharkhand as well as in Ayurveda. Thats why … must have seen bark scrapping.

– The state tree of Bengal

– Its called SCHOLARIS because, the old times plates of leaves were exclusively used to give away degrees to the students.

– This is still a practice in Viswa Bharati university shantiniketan, west bengal India

– The compound leaf was used as a plate and the degree which was usually on the paper or parchment sheet or may be leather, or whatever, is kept on the plate.

– All the soureces of information I have state that it gets its specific name of *scholaris* from the fact that in olden days the the wood was used for making school slates. Nowhere is the name attributed to have originated from the fact of giving degrees on the leaves.  Besides the source I have stated earlier ‘Medecinal plants’ by S.K. Jain and ‘The book of Indian Trees’ by K. C. Sahni too mention the same reason of use of slates.
   I feel that because of the name Alstonia scholaris and the 4 to 7  whorled shape of leaves, it could have led to the practise of using it to hand over the degrees on, as followed at Shantiniketan mentioned by Tanay. Attaching recent pictures from MNP, Mumbai.

-I dont know, may be the leaves are insect repellent. There are could be other reasons. There are some funny stories about many such plants. For example, why Julius Ceaser had this Laurel Leaf crown though he
was a king!!! People say that he was bald and so some herbal medicine guy told him to wear Laurel Leaf Crown to get back the hairs. When people came to know about this, they started making fun of him. Embarrassed by this, he made a rule that Laurel Leaf crown will be worn only by the royal king and even started giving this as prize to the athletes even in during Olympics.

– i started trying to figure out the logic in the number of leaves on each compound leaf.  6 on some twigs, repeated, if there are  7 then this is also repeated on the next level, others have 9. then i googled and found alstonia scholaris used in a scientific paper to model a virtual tree. after applying the procedure the author says “the difference between the model constructed from our system and the target plant remains. this is because of the complexity in nature which [sic] the random could not easily interpreted and calculated by humans.” (p.6).  i still have not found anything about the maths underlying the number of leaves on compound leaves as the tree grows. so i offer this link as a small contribution to the stories instead. my conclusion: it must be this gap between what would be mathematically perfect and what is, that makes nature so perfect.  🙂
http://bioquest.org/203D%20Plant%20Str…

– This is true that we cant interpret science with our theories. They are just hypothesis and assumptions. The number of leaflets in compound leaves vary a lot but that too depend on the species. In some plants the numbers are always fixed, like Butea (3), Marsilea (4), Regnellidium (2); but in some like members of Araliaceae, Alstonia, Bombax etc. Its not a big deal. Personally I feel, it may be due to availability of nutrient during that particular times. Its just like having twin or quadruplet or triplet baby. You can never predict it in advance!!!

– The Blackboards, which were used in the classes in my time, weremadefrom Scholar’s tree. Hence the name Alstonia scholaris. .., choping the braches of trees is ban in Delhi. If somebody does it without forest department’s writtenpermision can be sued, and the penalty is one year jail or Rs. 80,000=00 fine or both.

– Here there is information re graduation certficates at Shantiniketan [ref.”Sen”trees of Mumbai page 123]
‘A leaf of the Saptparni adorning the certificates of graduates of the Shantiniketan University ,became a practce ever since  Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister attended a convocation as the chief guest,which was as usual held under the shade of this very tree. So impressed was she tby the umbrella of  shade that she recommanded that the pracise be adopted, so as to imprint the contribution of the tree in the minds of the students along with the scripted name of the university.”

Devil’s tree-MN030211: Seen this tree with flower in a garden.

Requesting identification of this tree of medium height along Shastri Nagar Road at Pune. bunches of green slender strips were seen hanging all over the tree. There were many such trees along the road

The tree has also got the name scholar’s tree, as writing boards were prepared from the wood, earlier.

Thank you … I didn’t know this name and it is also very apt for the Visva-Bharati story.

When it blooms emits sweetest smell in the surroundings.

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I never noticed it before. This year i will remain alert during October that i think is its flowering time.

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Alstonia pollen are allergic to many. (see attached clipping)
In Traditional Healing many formulations including Pueraria based Formulations are used to manage Alstonia allergy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfaTnhAmFuY

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Thank you Sir for the alert. Maybe that’s why they named it the devil tree.

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… it flowers in Oct. During Sharad Purnima.

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I guess the name ghost tree is due to myths that ghosts reside in this tree. There was discussion about this earlier in our group with really gruesome stories.

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Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br from Assam : Attachments (4). 2 posts by 2 authors.

Attached images are Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br. 

Date :06.11.2013

Location: Kamrup district, Assam

Family : Apocynaceae

Genus & species : Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br

Habitat: Grows wild
Habit : Tree

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Thanks for this posting. I am afraid of it.

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More Photos now in Full Bloom

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Id. of Tree Please : 5 images.

Isn’t it Alstonia scholaris?