2023 May. I was pleasantly introduced to Bonsai version of Baobab through my friend Pramod Potdar. The miniature Baobab Bonsai was seen at Shukavana, a garden of approximately 2500 bonsai plants. This bonsai garden is a part of Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Ashrama, Mysuru. Pramod had shared pictures of three Baobabs which can be seen at Baobab Bonsai of Shukavana.
2024 February. I was on a 2-day visit of Mysore to see my school / college friends and also visit Shukavana to see the Baobabs. I was put up at my primary school friend Venugopal's home. I have to mention that Venu's house is situated in a peaceful locality situated centrally, and he's a wonderful host. We went to the ashram on Wednesday morning only to find out that it was the Shukavana's weekly holiday, same for the museum and bird zoo there. So we made another visit Thursday morning. The three places- bonsai garden, bid zoo & museum -are open to public from 10-30 am to 12-30 pm and 3-30 pm to 5-30 pm.
On entering the garden, I was stunned seeing the superbly maintained miniatures of almost every variety of tree an adult might have seen. However my eyes were looking for the miniaturized giants, the Baobabs. When the first one was spotted, I showed it excitedly to Venu. A few minutes later another, followed by another. Then on Venu started spotting Baobabs as well. We spotted nine or ten miniature Baobabs in those 45 minutes we spent here. As we approached the end of the tour I wondered if this collection had a Krishna Ficus. That moment was as though my subconscious mind had sensed its presence. Yes, a Krishna Ficus was spotted - this discovery made my morning!
Almost every plant here is labelled. The Krishna Ficus label read as below:
I have no idea what Dec 17 signifies. 1990 must be the year this plant was born. Going by that, this little Krishna Ficus is 33 years old.
This is Venugopal with Krishna Ficus. He was fascinated seeing it's cup-shaped leaves. I mentioned the story of Sri Krishna eating butter from cups made of Ficus leaves which eventually retained the cup-shape. Also mentioned about the three fully grown Krishna Ficus at Lalbagh, Bengaluru, he must visit the garden to see those beautiful trees.
For those who are unfamiliar with Krishna Ficus, please take a look at a normal Krishna Ficus and its cup-shape leaf.
Both Baobab and Krishna Ficus are rare plants. The former is native of Africa, saplings were brought by traveling traders in the medieval times. The latter, though a native of the Indian subcontinent are few in number. To my knowledge, there are just five places to see the legendary Krishna Ficus:
- Botanical Garden at Karnataka University, Dharwad
- Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bengaluru
- Deva Deva Vana, Karnataka Forest Dept garden near Bidar
- Discovery Village, a resort situated near Kanakapura
- Prakruti Vihara Vana, Karnataka Forest Dept garden at Mari Kanive near Hiriyur
Do see this amazing tree whenever you are nearby any of these places.
