What makes a tree throw a party for every bird, insect and animal in this flowering season

For this is the time when the grand semals, aka red silk cotton, and the king of trees, open out their hearts and bars to all: Great red goblets of flowers, brimming with the finest nectar on every branch and bough, for birds, insects and animals to savour at all hours. The goblets, they say, are replenished with a tablespoon of the elixir between 5 and 7 pm every evening, but there’s more than enough to go around. The big fruit bats party at night, the birds and insects and mammals during the day, and every morning, the ground beneath these great trees looks like the aftermath of a drunken orgy, with goblets strewn everywhere, the dregs eagerly being investigated by macaques, squirrels and in the forests, by the deer and porcupine.

If you join one of these mad tree parties at dawn, you will see that the birds are already deep in their cups. There is much excited chattering, squawking, and chirruping, not to mention the occasional (drunken) brawl between the guests. The host tree soars high on a ramrod silver grey trunk, maybe 20 m (higher in tropical areas), its branches spreading out umbrella-like. At this time the tree is bare-leafed but festooned from head to toe with its great waxy flowers: red, maybe orange, rarely white. The goblet blooms are heavy: dropped by a clumsy parakeet on your head, they can give you quite a knock!

Any bird with a craving for sugar is sure to be around. Sunbirds, dizzy and shrill with excitement, white-eyes that assiduously work their way through the canopy; tailorbirds and prinias that snap up the sweet insects which have just fed on the rich nectar; parakeets quaff from one goblet after another as if in their local bar, holding them up fastidiously in their claws before just letting them drop; mynas that squabble garrulously as they hop from bloom to bloom; babblers; orioles; bulbuls and, then, of course, gangs of crows that gatecrash like thugs in a Bond blockbuster and drive the other guests away before helping themselves. Two iconic semals guard the lawns of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, and here we saw a horde of rosy starlings arrive and push every other bird out. The resident hornbills and spotted owlets, who had been regarding all the goings-on with disapproval, quietly backed down into their hollows.

A study in Maharashtra revealed that 81 species of birds took part in the festivities, and another in Rajasthan listed 11 species of mammal, including squirrels, macaques, langur, fruit bats, porcupine and deer. The tree grows all over India, especially in the Northeast and has been extensively planted along the avenues of New Delhi. It is fast-growing and, in ideal tropical conditions, may soar to as high as 60 m. When young and vulnerable, the trunk is armoured with conical spikes or prickles that are really sharp: a monkey sliding down would end up with a cheese-grater bottom! As the tree gains stature, great buttress roots anchor it to the ground. The leaves are large and rounded and are dropped in winter just before the flowering season. And long after the partying is over in May, and the guests have done what they were really invited to do – cross-pollinate the tree – long brown velvety buds form. These eventually split open to reveal a silky floss within, where the actual seeds are nursed, and float away in the breeze, hopefully to land some distance away from their grand parent tree. But they still may not be home and dry, for now you are likely to see the oval orange or pink cotton-stainer bugs trundling around inside devouring the seeds and staining the silky snow-white flax.

For us, virtually every part of the tree is useful. The flowers can be cooked as a vegetable as can the seeds (which are otherwise poisonous), the wood is good for making packaging material and light boats (it does well in water), amongst other things, though not for construction as it is too soft. The silky floss is eagerly collected and used for stuffing pillows and also life-jackets as it is light and waterproof. To top it all, the tree is a virtual pharmacy – with its roots, shoots, bark et al. being used to cure virtually everything from cholera to snakebite. No wonder it is revered by tribal groups as a “tree totem” and this has provided it with due protection. It has been considered to be a home of female spirits, yakshis, and worshipped by women who want to have children.

There is however a darker side: Some tribal communities in Rajasthan regard the tree as malevolent: as yamadruma – the tree of Yama – the lord of hell, due to its spiky appearance and it is cut to be burnt in Holika-dahan, just before Holi. A large number of these trees are felled as a result, threatening their survival status.

Those that do survive will continue to soar and spread their umbrella-like canopy, providing shade all through the year, except when it’s time to drop the foliage again and fill the glorious red goblets brimful for another round of happy partying.