If you visit the green campuses and protected areas of Chennai, an arch of sturdy, twisting lianas that form a connected canopy overhead will welcome you, promising cool respite. In the understorey (the layer just below the canopy) you might find dazzling purple-blue Memecylon flowers, and catch a whiff of the spicy, citrusy aroma of Glycosmis leaves. In the more sunlit patches, a dwarf date palm with a sword-sharp leaf tip may thrive, while in the deepest shade, you might find large, shy colonies of Sansevieria, whose leaves provide the perfect anchor for whole colonies of spider webs. The understorey is the foraging ground of flycatchers and thrushes, and arboreal reptiles and mammals make use of an elaborate network of climbers.
A chameleon watches warily as it basks on a sun-loving shrub, Dodonaea angustifolia. Credit: Pranav Balasubramanian 
The orange-headed thrush is a shy bird, and forages in the undergrowth of dense forest patches. The shaded undergrowth provides complex foraging grounds for such specialists such as this thrush species. Credit: Wikimedia Commons 
The greater banded hornet pollinating flowers of the wild jujube. The dark fruits of this shrub, when ripe, is a winter staple for many birds and mammals in these forests. Credit: Pranav Balasubramanian 
A forest stand in a sacred grove in rural Tamil Nadu. Credit: Pranav Balasubramanian
This is but a glimpse of a forest type distinct to the Coromandel Coast of India called the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest (TDEF). Found in patches from False Divi Point in Andhra Pradesh to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, these forests seldom have trees that are over 12 metres tall. In Chennai city, TDEFs exist as diluted, urbanised versions of their original selves, their canopies heavily dominated by exotic raintrees and acacias. But in rural areas, in sacred groves in the heart of the Coromandel Coast, these intruding species are replaced by native trees. Each grove possesses a unique character: one may be dominated by Pterospermum suberifolium, another by Garcinia spicata. A lone emergent deciduous Indian rosewood tree might tower over these evergreen species, as is characteristic of the structure of these forests. TDEFs grow in both sandy and lateritic soils, and are adapted to the vagaries of the northeast monsoon which provides much of the rainfall in this region, from October to December.
Read the full story here at RoundGlass Sustain.
Musings from the great outdoors 