Sunday, June 3, 2012

Tumbe Hoovu in Toronto

Just a while ago, I was bemoaning the fact that certain plants, birds, insects, I grew up with in Bangalore are now missing. One of the plants I mentioned was the tumbe hoovu(Leucas aspera-common Leucas)
 I was surprised and happy to see the Tumbe Hoovu plant, being sold at Toronto's Canadian Super Store today(June 3rd 2012) in their gardening section. This store was selling the red Tumbe Hoovu plant  i.e. the Salvia Coccinea and not the white or pink flower ones, common in Bangalore, in the past. Years ago, the red Tumbe Hoovu  was rare in Bangalore, while the pink flowers were commonly seen in house gardens. The white Tumbe flowers(Leucas Aspera) grew wild, in empty lots, farm lands and at times in homes. This white flower was supposed to be a favorite of Lord

Shiva! (Any wild flower, which are not popular was supposedly

liked by Shiva. I wonder why? Even the flower of the milk weed is

supposeldy a Shiva favorite. Are the unwanted, unpopular less beautiful, common things liked by Shiva...Like ashes, Bilva leaves, Tumbe flowers, snakes, etc)

The botanical name for the two flowers are different i.e. Leucas 

Aspera and Salvia Coccinea, that I wonder, if we, in India, are 

calling two different flowers of two different species by one name

i.e. Tumbe Hoovu?



1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dear Friend,
The statement would have been made to save the species and not to consider them as waste. The main reason behind such statements are nothing but saving our Nature and its eco system.
Manohar

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