The Versatile Punnaga Tree

'There used to be a cattle shed where the garage is now.

- Ahana Lakshmi

It was shaded by a big tree with sweet smelling flowers’, said grandfather to Parthiv as they walked down the driveway of the old house. ‘My uncle told me that the flowers gave a high yield of honey. I remember collecting honey from the nearby bee hive when I was a college student decades ago.’

Punnaga (Punnai, Pinnai and other variations) is the Alexandrian Laurel. Despite its foreign sounding name, it is a tree whose native range stretches from Madagascar off Africa through India to South East Asia and Australia and is known by various local names such as foraha or vintanina in Madagascar, domba in Sri Lanka, bitangor or penaga in Malaysia, ponnyet or poon in Myanmar. In India, it is called Sultan Champa in Hindi, Undi or Udi in Marathi, Punnai or Pinnai in Tamil and Surabinne in Kannada. Though slow growing, it is a beautiful roadside tree and today, it is grown in many other locations around the world.