An Indian Bureaucrat's Diary

Have you heard of the Adansonia digitata tree, the Upside Down tree, the Monkey Bread tree, Dead Rat tree, or the Bread Fruit tree?

These are all different names of a most unusual and remarkable tree – the Baobab tree. It was given the botanical name Adansonia digitata in honour of Michel Adanson (1727-1806), the French Naturalist, who first saw it in Senegal in 1749.

It is called the Monkey Bread tree because monkeys eat the fruits like bread. It is called the Upside Down tree because when it is leafless, it looks like a tree planted upside down. It is called the Dead Rat tree because its furry fruits look like dead rats hanging down on their tails. And it is called the Bread Fruit tree because its fruits can be eaten like bread.
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Misnamed the Poor Man’s Ooty

The coffee is not an indigenous plant. Where did it came from?

Coffee was introduced into Yercaud from Arabia in the 1920s by Mr. M. D. Cockburn, then Collector of Salem. Yercaud is a small hill station perched on the Shevaroy Hills in Salem District of Tamil Nadu.
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Spices of India

If you visit tourist places in Goa and Kerala, you can visit spice gardens.

Some plantation owners have improvised their spice gardens into tourist attractions.
You can see a variety of plants where different spices come from.
The guide will answer your questions and clarify your doubts.
Your host will serve you authentic local meals in virgin surroundings and arrange a traditional dance.

Background

Indians use a lot of spices in their daily food.
But most do not know where the spices come from.
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