Butea frondosa, commonly known as 'Flame of the Forest', may not be a rare
tree in a tropical country like India. But 'Flame of the Forest developed
using biotechnology tools on the St Aloysius College campus in Mangalore
(South Karnataka) is not just rare but the only one of its kind in the
whole world.

Dr Kavitha, a researcher of the Laboratory of Applied Botany of St
Aloysius College, under the guidance of Fr Leo DSouza sj, scientist and
director of the laboratory, attained the sapling of the Butea tree through
tissue culture in 1992 and planted it on the college campus.

After a long and patient wait of ten years, it has finally flowered this
year and the flower-borne tree is quite a feast for the eyes.

The uniqueness of this tree, unlike any other Butea trees, is that it
bears flowers and leaves at the same time. Ordinary Butea trees shed their
leaves before flowering.

Butea grows normally in dry and tropical regions and in general attained
through a hard seed. The flowers are bright red in colour and are used for
making dyes while the timber is used as fuel and its leaves are used for
decorative purposes.

As the tree sheds its leaves by late summer, the flowers in full bloom
still remain on it, and the tree resembles a 'tree afire' in the forest.

The tree has multifarous utility. Fr Leo D'Souza says that the tree has
nitrogen-fixing qualities and is a wonderful species to plant in
afforestation programmes in degraded lands such as abandoned surface
mining sites. The tree produces a gum called 'Bengal Kino' and is a host
for lacquer cultivation. The gum is also used for treating diarrhoea and
its seeds for ridding tapeworms and roundworms. Leaves are also used for
treating heat eruptions and dhobi-itch.

The tree thus has a wide range of commercial uses. According to Fr Leo,
mass propagation through tissue culture could be beneficial; but it has a
long germination period and takes at least seven years to grow. Further
research may open doors for shorter germination period.

The Laboratory for Applied Botany under the guidance of Fr Leo has quite a
few achievements to its credit. Fr Leo has also developed a coconut
sapling through tissue culture. Subsequently the laboratory propagated
cashew and gnutum through the same process.... -- Melwyn Pinto sj in
Jivan, April 2003. --
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Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net
Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org
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