Borassus flabellifer
The Guindy National Park, Raj Bhavan and IIT-Madras habitat complex has historically enjoyed a certain degree of protection and has continued to support some of the last remnants of the natural habitats that typify the natural range of plant and animal biodiversity of the Coromandel-Circar coastal plains in the northeastern Tamil Nadu. The ecosystem consists of the rare tropical dry evergreen scrub and thorn forests receiving about 1200 mm of rainfall annually. This vegetation has been reclassified as the "Albizia amara" community. The region's physiognomy occurs as discontinuous or dense scrub-woodlands and thickets, containing species such as introduced "Acacia planifrons", "Clausena dentata" shrubs, palmyrah palm ("Borassus flabellifer"), "Randia dumetorum", "Randia malabarica", "Carissa spinarum", "Acacia chundra", exotic cactus "Cereus peruviana" and "Glycosmis mauritiana".