Spring Tree Quest Report

In March this year, SeasonWatch organized yet another bioblitz event - the Spring Tree Quest. The idea of this event was to rapidly collect phenology data on the common and widespread trees of India. This allows one to see what some of our common trees are doing across the country.

We plan to hold three more bioblitz events this year. This will allow us to compare snapshots of many thousands of trees over different seasons.

We are thrilled to report that participation was as enthusiastic this time round as it was during the Winter Tree Quest! During the Spring Tree Quest 137 individuals, 50 schools and 9 colleges contributed data on 14,706 trees from 22 states and 5 UTs. The following report is a summary of the event, with top performers, top species recorded and a few of the overall phenology patterns we were able to capture via the event.

See you again for Summer Tree Quest in June 2019!

Regards,
SeasonWatch Team

Observations

 

The Top Tens

Members of Wildlife Information and Nature Guide Society (WINGS) observing trees on a tree walks in West Bengal, during the Spring Tree Quest
 

Top 10 states

Most number of observations came from these 10 states. Kerala contributed a phenomenal number of observations, coming leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else! Tamil Nadu climbed up six places from the last event and came second.

State	No. of observations
Kerala	9681
Tamil Nadu	1047
Uttarakhand	1022
Karnataka	778
Maharashtra	657
Meghalaya	644
West Bengal	276
Rajasthan	146
Odisha	83
Chhattisgarh	61

 

Top 10 individuals

Individuals from all walks of life contributed observations during the event. The top 10 individual contributors from across India are given below. It was spectacular to see individual observations exceeding 700!

Name	No. of observations
Prakash S U	790
Unnikrishnan M P	790
Resly Roy Pariong	632
Lakshmikant Neve	387
Sujata M	254
Vidhya Sundar	237
K S Lyla	202
Suhel Quader	117
Pooja Pawar	103
Mittal Gala	67

We asked some of our top participants about their experience: what motivated them to see so many trees and what were their most exciting observations.

Prakash P U, who recently joined SeasonWatch, came out on top along with Unnikrishnan, our defending champion from the last event. Prakash got inspired by our long-time member and user Dr Priyanka and visited several places to look at trees include. The places he visited include Ooruttambalam, Pravachambalam, Valiyarthala, Paappanamcod, Thiruvananthapuram, Poojappura, and Kattaakkada. He reports that the most exciting thing he observed was that individuals of some species such as rain tree, teak tree, and kannikonna appeared to be doing similar things whereas individuals of other species such as copper-pod and mango were in different condition.

Vidhya Sundar, a prolific birder, brought her enthusiasm to look at trees during this event. She admits to not having paid much attention to trees before but decided to participate in the event. She prepared herself by checking out the list of species that are monitored and getting help in identification. She chose to visit Madiwala Lake in Bangalore where several trees have been planted and she could easily see several trees. When asked about what her most memorable observation was, she says, “I realized how less we observe small things around us. Some flowers like Mast Tree and Indian Almond were so pretty even if they were not colourful.” She also was surprised that different individuals of the same species were behaving differently. She says, “I saw a Crepe myrtle laden with dry fruits and totally without any leaves and I took another step and saw the same species fully leaved and ready to burst into blooms with loads of buds”. With her keen eyes, we hope that this birder continues to watch trees as well!

Resly Roy Pariong, one of our ace teachers from Meghalaya, traveled around his district to observe trees. Over the four days, he traveled more than 100 km and visited 30 villages in the West Khasi Hill region to observe trees in parks, gardens and, along roads. He says, “It gave me great pleasure and I feel much closer to nature”.

Top 10 schools/colleges

Spring is the time when most trees are on their best display and also when most schools in our country have exams. Yet little armies of students went out to watch trees and record data.  The top 10 school/college contributors from across India are given below. The top count exceeded 4000!

Name	No. of observations
St. Helens G.H.S., Lourdepuram	4044
M.T.S.S.K.G.U.P.School	1171
Shaheed Manoj Singh Chauhan (G.I.C Gaindi khata)	1016
Government Higher Secondary School, Arasur	570
Govt V H S S Veeranakavi	393
C.P.N.M. G.H.S.S., Mathamangalam	278
WINGS Botanical Research Wing	223
Blossom English School- Kainatty	215
Christ Nagar English Higher Secondary School Kowdiar-TVM	199
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya	181

St Helens School in Kerala, led by Sister Shija Jacob. Sr Shija is the largest contributor again this time. We congratulate and thank them for their enthusiasm, especially considering that exam time is an extremely busy time for schools.


School students from Government Higher Secondary School, Arasur observed trees in Tamil Nadu

Government Higher Secondary School, Arasur, were among top contributing schools. Their teacher Krishnaveni, has been instrumental in introducing them to watching birds and trees. She writes, " It was amazing experience for me. When we saw a Cassia fistula tree, it was full of flowers, and it was nice to see that. On 16 March, we went around Arasur west, east and Nadu Arasur areas. My school children observed 106 trees within 1 hour 25 minutes. They gained a lot of information about season watching and they saw many birds also while observing trees. That area people asked many questions regarding season watch. Students told reasons for that question. So far we wasted our time. Hereafter we will love trees, birds and nature. Like that my students told to me".

Shaheed Manoj Singh Chauhan G.I.C. in Uttarakhand made an appearnce in the top 10 again this year, this time finding a place among the top 5 schools as well. Led by Taukeer Alam, who works with the Nature Science Initiative in Dehradun and is an avid birder belonging to the forest-dwelling Van Gujjar community, students recorded > 1000 trees over 4 days! He said that every day students made groups of 2,3,5 or 6 and made observations in the morning and evening. Most students were from 8, 9 and 11th standard. But exams did not keep away even the 10 and 12 standard students, who chose to make observations after finishing their exams for the day.

Some individuals mobilized and motivated groups of people to go out and look at trees. Pavel Ghosh, one of our top contributors from the Winter Tree Quest, focused on motivating people from his city Durgapur to watch trees this time. He writes “...as the Secretary-in-Charge of the organization WINGS, and Departmental Head of WINGS Botanical Research Wing, which counts heavily on Citizen Science Programs, I put my best efforts to organize this program across Durgapur”. He organized tree walks across 4 districts of West Bengal (Paschim Bardhaman, Purulia, Bankura and Birbhum) and 3 districts of Jharkhand (East Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan and Dumka). He write thats the most interesting observations were, “...discovery of orchids on Haldina codifolia and Ficus religiosa trees, observations of Utricularia (insectivores) in Durgapur, first time observations of Pterospermum acerifolium in Seraikela-Kharsawan District and orchids in East Singhbhum district.”

Species summaries

A peach tree in full bloom in Meghalaya. Photo: Resly Roy Pariong

What were the top species recorded across the country? Here is a graph showing number of observations for top ten species.


 

Region-wise species summary

Different species were recorded in highest numbers from different regions of the country, somewhat indicative of the habitats in these regions. While the coconut palm was the most observed species in peninsular India, guava was the most observed in the north (with most observations coming in from Uttarakhand state). While neem was most observed species in central India, the box-myrtle was recorded the most from the east. Their phenologies are below: 




Below is a list of top 10 species from south, central-western, north and  east India. We also received observations from the islands of Lakshadweep, and Andaman & Nicobar islands, but not enough to see patterns. We hope there are more trees from the islands the next time round! 

 

South		Central-western		North		East
Species	Trees	Species	Trees	Species	Trees	Species	Trees
Coconut palm	1645	Neem	126	Guava tree	109	Box myrtle	155
Jackfruit tree	979	White babool	122	Lantana	108	Himalayan cherry	155
Teak	941	Mango tree	71	Jamun tree	96	Peach tree	150
Mango tree	816	Peepal	64	Curry leaf plant	90	Pear tree	83
Neem	675	Pongam tree	41	Mango tree	89	Bottle-brush tree	35
Rain tree	374	Drumstick tree	31	Khajur tree	72	Plum tree	34
Indian laburnum	356	Coconut palm	29	Silkworm mulberry	61	Khajur	27
Quickstick	272	Red silk cotton	28	Chinaberry	48	Sohiong	25
Gulmohur	270	Frangipani	26	Banyan	39	Flame of the forest	16
Pongam tree	248	Jamun tree	25	Neem	37	Tree of heaven	16

 

Patterns across India

Over 45% of trees with that were observed were flowering during this time. Let's look at some of these trees.

Bombax ceiba and Butea monsoperma are iconic native trees that are known to flower just as the winter season ends and put out their lovely bright flowers on display. More than half of the trees that were observed, belonging to these species, were seen to be flowering.


Tabebuia rosea and Delonix regia are two common avenue trees, the first one more so in the southern city of Bangalore. Both these trees are known for producing lovely crowns of flowers. Most (88%) of the Tabebuia rosea trees were observed to be covered in rosy pink bloom.


Pongamia pinnata, a common Indian tree, often planted along road-sides is most spectacular when it produces fresh leaves. Production of fresh leaves is quickly followed by flowers. Most trees of the species adorned fresh leaves and half of them were also flowering. Compared to other species, flowering in Syzygium cumini seems to have just started.   


The iconic Cassia fistula, mostly reported from Kerala, was blooming a full month in advance before the Vishu festival (when this species is expected to bloom). Another beautiful native tree of the same plant family, Saraca asoca was also blooming across the country!

Participants

Participants observing trees on a tree walk in GKVK campus, Bangalore during the Winter Tree Quest. Photo by Jenis Patel

We are very thankful to all the individuals, schools and colleges who participated in the Winter Tree Quest! Here is a list of everyone who participated:

Individuals:
Abhisheka Krishnagopal, Abraham Jeyakumar, Adithya, Aditi SK, Ajay Gadikar, Akhilesh Sharma, Akshatra, Akshay, Amaresh Ranasingh, Amruta Padgaonkar, Anil Nivalkar, Aniruddha Datta Roy, Anithra, Anupa K Babu, Anuradha Bhadsavle, AR Tamizh, Aravind, Asha E Thomas, Ashok Agarwal, Ashwin Subramanian, Atul Siddheshwar Patane, Ayushman Mohanty, Badri Narayanan Thiagarajan, Bhavisha, Biang Syiem, Bibidishananda Basu, C Krishnagopal, C R Pradeep, Chandra Sekhar Bandi, Chirag Munje, Dayani Chakravarthy, Deepti, Devi, Dharmendra, Dinesh A Gawali, Divya, Elavarasan M, Fatima, Ganeshwar S V, Geetha Ramaswami, Gitanjali Kanwar, Hareesha AS, Harshjeet Singh Bal, Isheta Divya, Jacob Eapen, Janaki Lenin, Jaydev Mandal, Jenis, Jessica Luis, K.S Lyla, Kalidasan, Karthik Teegalapalli, Karunamoorthy S, Kavita, Lakshmikant Neve, Loganathan P, M, Mallika Iyer, Manjeet Kaur, Manoj, Misha Bansal, Mittal Gala, Mohan, Mohan Moolepetlu, Moushmi, Mousumi Dutta, Mridula Chari, Muhammed Nizar. K, Neha, Neha Chhangani, NiranjanV, Nishanth, Nishrin, Omkar, P Jeganathan, P S Baiju, P Rajangam, Pavel Ghosh, Pawan Darne, Perumal K, Pins, Pooja, Pooja Pawar, Poornima, Prakash S U, Pranav, Prasad Sandbhor, Pratiksha Kothule, Pravar Mourya, Rachit Aryan, Radhidevi J, Rajarajan V, Rama, Raphael Lyngdoh Nonglait, Resly Roy Pariong, Rithika S, Rolf Ericsson, Rudolf Maximus Lyngdoh Nonglait, Rudra Prasad Banerjee, Sabid M, Sapna Jayaraman, Sarayu Ramakrishnan, Sayee Girdhari, Selvaganesh, Shanti, Shaurya Rahul Narlanka, Shikha Bisht, Shilpa, Shivona Bhojwani, Shreekant Deodhar, Siddharth Agarwal, Siddharth Gunturi, Sidharth, Sidharth Srinivasan, Soma, Stella, Subramanian, Suchi Govindarajan, Suhel Quader, Sujatha M, Sujith Chandran, Sushama, Swati Kittur, Swati Sidhu, TR Shankar Raman, Unnikrishnan MP, Vaishnavi, Vanathi, Varsha, Vena Kapoor, Vidhya Sundar, Vidur Niranjan, Vijayalakshmi, Viji, Vinatha, Vishal Sadekar, Zenrainman
 
 Schools and Colleges:
A E T English Medium School Amayur, A.U.P School Cherumundassery, Aiswarya Public School, Amrith Vidyalayam, Anderson HSS, Bemannur G.U.P.S Paruthippulli 678573, Blossom English School Kainatty, C.M.G.H.S.S. Kuttur, Christ Nagar English Hr.Sec School Kowdiar P.O- Tvm, G.H.S.S. Mathamangalam, Creative, Dr.N.International School, Durgapur Government College, Eriam Vidyamithram UP School, Forest College And Research Institute, G L P S Porur, G U P S Puthichal, G.V.&H.S.S. Alamcode, G.H.S.S. Mathil, GJHS Naduvattam, Government Arts College (Autonomous) Salem 7, Government High School Pillaiyarkuppam, Government High School Cincona, Government Higher Secondary School Arasur, Government Higher Secondary School Diwansapudur, G.H.S.S.Kanyakulangara, Govt Higher Secondary School, Govt UPS Edavilakom (Visishta Haritha Vidyalayam), Govt V H S S Veeranakavu, Govt.U.P. School Kongad, Isha Home School, Janatha Higher Secondary School Naduvattam, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, K.P. Gopinathannair Memorial Public School Aruvikkarakkonam Tvm-84, Kizhuthally East U P School, K K Kidav Memorial UP School, Krea University, M.T.S.S.K.G.U.P.School, NSHS, Panchayat Union Middle School Thalavaipatty-Salem, Parikrma Foundation, Pariong Presbytery Higher Secondary School, Poorna Learning Centre, Rajiv Gandhi Institute Of Veterinary Education And Research, Royal College Of Arts- Science And Commerce, Saniya Suhas Kirloskar,Shahid Manoj Singh Chohan(Gic Gaindi Khata),Shree Mallikarjun Colledge Of Arts Commerce And Science, Shree Sitaram Jaju Govt Girls College Neemuch, SMLPS Kaliyar, South Kuthuparamba U.P. School, St Thomas U.P.S. Kanamala, St. Antonysh.S.Spazhuvil, St. Helens G.H.S. Lourdepuram, St.Mary's Jnanodaya English School Pallikkunnu, Thulir Illam, T.S.S.G.U.P.S, V.H.S.S. Kanichukulangara, Wings Botanical Research Wing

 

Winners

Our top 3 contributing individuals and schools will be getting a sur-prize! In addition, our challenge during this event was to see at least 20 trees. We used lucky draw to pick an individual and a school, each, from among all those that met the above criteria, to give out a consolation prize. Congrats to Ashok Agarwal from Chattisgarh and Government Higher Senior Secondary School, Kuttamassery, Kerala on being our lucky draw winners!

Write to us!

Would you like to see any other kinds of summaries of the data you have contributed? Do have queries about the data you collected, the app or trees in general? Drop us a line on sw@seasonwatch.in or a WhatsApp message at +91 73495 67602. You can send us queries and suggestions on these contacts too!