Tree love

#ThursdayTreeLove – Splendor of the Golden Rain tree

Genus: Cassia Fistula

Common name: Amaltas / Laburnum / Golden rain tree / Golden chain tree / Kanikkona /  Swarnapushpa / Bahava ke phool

As a child I was fascinated by the Amaltas flowers as I would mistake them for bunches of grapes hanging from the tree. The golden flowers spring forth in chandelier form and can be seen blooming from late April to about August end in North India.

Its a sight to behold in urban landscapes where its very popular as an avenue tree. Come season, social media feeds are littered with photographs of its vibrant sunshine flowers.

Golden Rain tree is revered as the state flower of Kerala where its used as a mandatory offering during the ‘Vishnu festival’ or the Malayalam New Year celebrations. The golden flowers are called Kondrai or Kanikkona in Kerala.

Its a popular tree through out South East Asia and is honored as the national flower of Thailand for its thought that the golden hues hint at royalty.

In Ayurveda the tree is known as “Aragvadha” or the disease killer tree for its superb medicinal value. The fruit pulp is said to have great laxative properties while the flowers have use in folk remedies. But care needs to be taken as all parts of the plants are said to be poisonous.

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amaltas- golden shower - yellow flowers- North India- summers - Thursday Tree love

What I love about the Golden rain tree is its ability to bloom so strong and bright in the intense Indian summer heat. Its almost as if its defying the summer sun to burn it up. Its a favorite sight in summers and I always look forward to the show. I end up burying a few blooms in between the pages of books to make into bookmarks later. I am blessed to have long rows of amaltas trees near my house as its a very popular avenue tree here.


Have you ever seen the Amaltas tree? Do you have one in your neighborhood? I would love to hear about your experience of sighting this gorgeous tree.

Thursday Tree Love is a fabulous tree hop by the lovely Parul K Thakur who opens the blog hop every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. So if you have a gorgeous tree to share with us, please link up on her post.

Meantime you can have a look at the tree I shared last fortnight here

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13 thoughts on “#ThursdayTreeLove – Splendor of the Golden Rain tree

  1. My favourite tree. There actually is a lane named Laburnum lane after this treein a closeby neighbourhood where once every summer this lane was golden with the blossoming trees. Alas both the trees and the name of the road have changed….

    1. Thats the sad truth of progress in our lives that the trees are disappearing, names of roads and lanes are being changed and what not. Will we even be able to recall and recognize our locality 10 years down the lane? I guess not!

  2. This is such a beautiful tree and I love the blooms. I have seen this tree many times but never got a shot in full bloom. Last edition too, there was a lovely one like this. Thanks for sharing all the information. Always good to know about trees. Thanks for joining, Shalini. I hope to see you on the 9th 🙂

    1. I love this tree a lot and as I said I used to think it was a grape tree when I was a small kid. The grown ups too indulged in this fancy of mine and let me live with this perception for a while. I love joining in on the Tree love and will be definitely linking up for the next one 🙂

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