The Beautiful Chamrod

Chamrod (Ehretia laevis), one of the most beautiful of Delhi’s native trees, has mostly been ignored in the city’s planting scheme. Inconspicuous for the larger part of the year, it is hard to miss when it bursts into small, white star-shaped flowers in mid-March. We found several specimens in Nehru Park and Jahanpanahan City Forest, from young, knobbly trees to stately, older ones. Here we also caught a red-breasted flycatcher foraging for insects in the tree canopy, and a brown-headed barbet that came to rest on a branch for a short while before flying off. Keep a lookout for these trees when they bloom next year!