Tree Tale - Umbrella Tree | English
Channel: Arvind Gupta
Date: 13/04/2015

This tree is the UMBRELLA TREE. Its botanical name is the Schefflera actinophylla. It belongs to the family Araliaceae. This tree is a native of Queensland, Australia and can also be found in Java. But now it is grown all over the world for its decorative beauty. This tree is located in the IUCAA, Pune, India campus. The tree is also called as the Octopus Tree – perhaps a reference to the arrangement of the leaves. The flowers are held on radiating spikes like an umbrella above the leaf crown. The leaves are palmate – actinophylla means emanating from one point. The green leaves become yellow with age. The red and crimson flowers are held on radiating spikes above the leaves. These profuse flowers generate a large amount of nectar and that is why they attract a lot of birds’ bees and butterflies. The birds in turn help in spreading its seeds. This work was supported by IUCAA and Tata Trust. This film was made by Ashok Rupner TATA Trust: Education is one of the key focus areas for Tata Trusts, aiming towards enabling access of quality education to the underprivileged population in India. To facilitate quality in teaching and learning of Science education through workshops, capacity building and resource creation, Tata Trusts have been supporting Muktangan Vigyan Shodhika (MVS), IUCAA's Children’s Science Centre, since inception. To know more about other initiatives of Tata Trusts, please visit www.tatatrusts.org