A memoir of trees recorded on the SeasonWatch app - An internal monologue of the feelings through bloom and fruition of the soul
The Project
SeasonWatch launched their website and application to help learning institutions document their flora as a part of the Campus Phenology Network. It was a year-long work of collecting weekly data of shedding, new leaves, buds and flowers, unripe to ripe fruits, and other details such as tree height and girth. Per species, as many trees could be recorded - but I started with one per species, and attempted ten in total. This project was a part of Nature Conservation Foundation’s efforts to acclimatize schools and colleges with the variability in seasons linked to tree adaptations to climate change.
The first tree that stirred my conscience is the edible fig, in my early childhood - as memories of tasting its velvety fruit and imagining Greek Gods holding its broad leaf, when I visited my aunt’s house near Seventh Day Adventist High School. Now, as I stay in the same flat, I had the opportunity to engage the students of the school with a tree activity booklet I designed, to help them identify certain tree characters that varied across species - such as inflorescence and fruit type, or leafing strategy, germination mechanisms and pollination protocols.
Fig Photo by Zhu Jia Bin on Unsplash
While this engagement with children brought back memories of nature-based education that I was privileged to experience in two alternative schools as a facilitator of learning, I strived through the year of enriching their knowledge and mine, of plant systematics, floral taxonomy and tree morphology. This project that helped me pace my own weeks of turmoils within, helped me slow down and observe life within and around my backyard. Walking on the street of the school, sharing a common wall with our apartment complex, that was lined with trees as old as sixty-odd years on both sides, I cherished going back to my childhood garden that doesn't exist anymore. Now that I've settled in this environment, I don't feel like leaving anytime soon.
In my head, trees speak to each other, through the interconnected root network, through seasons of flowering and fall, through lush leafing to fruiting stages, and with the winds and water that flow through their being. This is an attempt to decipher my mental constructs, as I engage with their individual forms through an entire year of study - noting down weekly observations of their behavior and growth through seasonal shifts for the period April 2025 to March 2026.
Context to Research
Journaling in research is often a process in revealing the layers of the subconscious psyche. It involves reconnecting with the subject of study, while documenting observations on their behavior, pattern or essence. While many botanists have engaged in identification of native and foreign flora, plant science is more of an interaction with the growth stages and life cycles of trees, shrubs and herbs. It is more of attuning to their energies and stories by which they narrate their relatedness with the observer. Such writings are usually expressed as memoirs of flora, in the language and mind of the author.
Incidents of the writer around a similar species in their lifetimes are reminded of by such journals, rich in recollected memories around the fruit they all savoured as a family, the flowers that contributed to their aesthetics of scenic views, or their leafing and foliage during fall – all a testimony to the continued relationship they have with that species.
Methods
This reflective writing represents deep-seated emotions of the author – attached to trees while engaging with them on a daily basis, through childhood memories and their phenologies. It also engages in documenting the role of assimilation of nutrients from some edible fruits that promote the mental wellness of the writer, on a seasonal basis – while facing challenges of depression or anxiety related to a lack of purpose or sense of belonging. Urban forests such as these fragmented patches offer solace to the author in making meaning of each tree in their emotional intelligence. Represented as major defining events, both internal and external – these standing giants mark resilience for the author to continue on with life.
Character of the plot (Nicknames)
And their associations with feelings and memories
Araucaria cookii / columnaris (Piny)
Reminds me of the wintery northern parts of India, and a few Western Ghat areas covered with pine cones, also reminding me of the tall cone canopies at Lalbagh
Swietenia mahagoni (Mahogany)
Its pods reminds me of the helicopter seed dispersal technique I exhibited as a part of my school's biomimicry festival
Stereospermum tetragonum (Yellowy)
The yellow trumpet reminds me of Summers in Bangalore, especially Cubbon Park
Bauhinia purpurea - Purple Bauhinia (Bauhy)
As I cycled in the early hours of mornings to tutorial classes, my wheels crushed their twisted and coiled pods on roads
Pongamia pinnata - Honge (Pongy)
The carpeted buds on the roadside, under the lush shade of new leaves of this tree marks monsoons for me
Ficus palmata - Bedu (Figgy)
The broad leaves and tasty syconia, remind me of Athens and naked gods and nurturing goddesses - signifying a sculpted physique
Mangifera indica - Mango (Mangy)
This tree reminds me of the forest mango trees that are huge and a century old, feeding the migrating monkeys each fruiting season. A clip from ‘Mowgli’ of the monkey-king and his feast of mango varieties too
Delonix regia - Gulmohar or May flower (Gully)
This tree brings colors to my heart in May, its sepals on my nails - playing witchcraft with my cousins when I was a kid
Artocarpus heterophyllus - Jackfruit (Jacky)
The sweet fruit, and the raw vegetable - both remind me of family feasts and values associated with sharing the bounties of life
Ficus benjamina - Weeping Fig (Benjy)
This tree, a peculiar fruit loved by many birds that visit it while it fruits each year. It brings to me feelings of strength and resilience as it stands at the curbside of my gate
Tree – Ficus benjamina at the gate of my residence, sharing a common compound with a school
Leaves and fruit of the identified species of flora standing at 12m tall
Tree memoir narrative
The strong Benjy standing tall at the entrance to my mind, constantly reminds me of the fruits I shall reap from Figgy, Mangy and Jacky – if only I decide to walk a mile within. Touching on the internal feelings of the frosty Piny, as I am greeted with a shower of seeds dispersed by the tall Mahogany and the blanketed petals of Gully on the footpath, I reach a point in my heart’s desire – that is reminded of play, a swing and a slide, and memories of childhood under the shade of the forest mango and a truncated jackfruit tree. While Yellowy, Bauhy and Pongy are more external feelings that are fleeting like academic intellect; those of Benjy, Jacky and Mangy are integral to my home of emotions. Mahogany brings memories of Autumn, with crushed dry leaves covering a tarred road, its earthy Musk reaching my nostrils as I take an evening stroll down memory lane. Pongy represents the oil of elixir, extracted from the Honge tree that keeps my brain nourished. The crispy crunchies of the rolled pods of Bauhy, with the soles of my shoes, reminds me of my playful nature during my early years. Yellowy represents my vision to stand twisted yet strong, stunted by external forces – yet blooming every year.
As Figgy is the epitome of fitness and physique, it represents for me to be embodied in my weight and curves, my form and imperfections. Figgy represents a healthy throat, and is connected to a reminder of divine source. I eat a dry fig daily these days, and miss my childhood memories of ripping open the red inflorescence within the syconium.
Jacky seats the power of my sensuality, connected to the heart of desires. It also keeps a check on my emotions as I indulge in its fried chips when triggered. I used to get a whole jackfruit as a yearly gift from my neighbour aunt, who had a tree that bore fruit each year. Plucking the fruitlet pods, deseeding them and cooking the dried seeds in gravies was a childhood remembrance I’d still not forget.
Mangy represents the summer meal plan, seating the power of digestion and assimilation in a healthy gut microbiome. Sourcing healthy fibre, it regulates my bowels and helps me stay rooted to meditation as a practice for mental health. In my summer days of childhood, we used to gather a bed sheet below the canopy of our mango tree and pluck them with a metal rod. Distributing raw mango pickle in jars, made by aunt and mom – reminds me of those days filled with fun, climbing branches and gardening.
The helicopter wings of the Mahogany seed suggest for me to spread and germinate my ideas at various forums of intellectual discourse. While the Gulmohar reminds me to nourish myself and indulge in self care, it keeps a check at what I allow into my aura. Guarding my gate, along with Benjy who reminds me of abundance, it shares its roots with those of the Mahogany too. In all, these ten trees are arranged in a mental constellation that I find comforting, while I face each day. Growing in my backyard, or on the roadside of my abode, I find them dissipating energies that help me get by each day.
Trees mapped around the school, on Google maps
Maple is wrongly labelled - it is in fact Mahogany
Conclusion
As I delved deep into this project - apprehensive of rightly identifying flora, I learnt through three misidentified trees that my knowledge of plant taxonomy is still weak. Though I did a semester course on systematics in botany, I found it challenging to distinguish between certain Ficus sps. such as mollis and benjamina in their non-bonsai growth form. The yellow trumpet flowers of three species look alike and can be easily interchangeably mistaken for either of the three, as follows: Tabebuia argentea, Handroanthus chrysotrichus (formerly Tabebuia chrysotricha) or Tabebuia kuning and Stereospermum tetragonum. The last confusion was around Araucaria cookii / columnaris mistaken as Abies pindrow.
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank Swati Sidhu, Nature Conservation Foundation – for her constant support and motivation in making this possible, for me to be able to meticulously record 10 tree species over a period of 26 weeks. I’d like to give gratitude to the SeasonWatch team for organising such a project – the Campus Phenology Network, and for member institutes who participated and shared their knowledge on local flora.
Author bio
Hussain Ebrahim is an independent researcher, educator of alternate schooling, and has recently secured a doctorate in the field of interdisciplinarity from The University of Transdisciplinary Health Sciences and Technology, Bangalore. Their recent interests in research include eco-centric learning amidst children from tribal families, documenting via oral histories and folklore – community conservation initiatives in reviving sustainable livelihoods that are dependent on the effective management of locally existing natural capital. They are also pursuing findings on the role that plant-derived medicine plays in healthcare of Adivasis amidst forested landscapes, in the hope of preserving aboriginal customary practices. They bring passion to how gender dialogues with the self in building healthy identity that is authentic and expressive. They hone art as therapy and are practicing psychology in a similar lens of thought.
Editor:
Nishanth Gurav
PhD student
Tropical Botany and Ethnobiology
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
E-Mail: gurav@ftz.czu.cz
To read more about the project and join CPN, you can visit their website:
https://www.seasonwatch.in/updates/campus-phenology-network-2025-2026/
Email:
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