Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): In research that will go a long way in protecting rare species of forest trees for medicinal and other uses, the government-run State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) here grafted two varieties of Semal into a single tree bearing red and yellow flowers.

The Semal tree bearing yellow flowers is a rare species found in forests of Madhya Pradesh.

Semal tree (Bombax ceiba) is a tropical tree species that has medicinal and other uses and is found in almost all provinces in the country. Semal trees grow up to 15-25 meters and their leaves are large and five-lobed.

Generally, the flowers of this tree are red. Its fruits are large and oval. Semal with yellow flowers are rarely found. It can be identified by the presence of thorns on its trunk. The wood of Semal tree is used for furniture and other wood products.

The fibre of the tree is used for ropes and other products. Its various parts, especially the root and gum, are used in Ayurvedic medicines.

The grafting of yellow Semal was done with the red semal tree so to have both red and yellow coloured on the same tree.

In the medicinal nursery of SFRI experiments were conducted for over two years in preparing plants from the seeds of red Semal and grafting the branch of a big yellow tree.

After the grafting process was done, it took one year for the flower of both red and yellow colour grew, SFRI scientist Uday Homkar said.

Last year another grafting of branches of two different colours (red and yellow) was done.

After this process flowers of two different colours, yellow and red respectively grew on a single plant.

The size of the flowers remained the same normal as existed on the big tree.

With this technique, the process of flowering and fruiting might be started in a short time.

The scientists feel this technique will prove useful in the conservation, and promotion of this species and in preparing trees of desired qualities.