Amaltas is King in Spring

Ah, the spring is here again. A nature lover like me enjoys all seasons with equal enthusiasm but then there is no denying that spring gives you something extra.

It offers sheer pleasure to the eye. The new leaves, the bloom of bright hued flowers, typical to this season, and all such things.



The Peepal tree - or for that matter any other ficus - shows the most promising coloured leaves. As in case of this photo, see the beautiful reddish pink neatly tucked between the two army greens. 

And what to say of the yellow danglers, the Amaltas. (Called the Indian Laburnum). Beautiful aren't they? But I must confess, this is not a very good photo. But I am waiting, for soon the Delhi streets would erupt in a riot of yellow. Flowers, flowers and more flowers at one point of time and no leaves at all. In fact, that is the USP of many a spring flowers, all flowers and no leaves. And as nature would have it, the flowers do not last more than half an hour if you pluck them away from the tree.  

If we just can learn to observe nature. The brighter the Amaltas, they tell us, the better the summer. And more the temperature during summers, the better the rains, the old people say. But we seem to be indulging in activities that induce climate change and take us more and more towards global warming.

For instance, since 2007, I myself have kept track of how the same Amaltas blooms in September too. Although the flowers bloom in lesser numbers and along with the leaves, the very fact that Amaltas is seen in September is alarming. That indicates some subtle change in the weather pattern. 

Will it happen this September?