Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : False Ashoka, Mast Tree

Hindi Name : अशोक | Scientific Name : Monoon longifolium
Family : Annonaceae
Uses : Regarded as sacred in India and Sri Lanka, and commonly planted around Hindu temples. Leaves strung into wreaths and used during weddings and hung on doors during Hindu festivals. Leaf extracts have anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Bark used in Ayurverdic medicine to treat fever, diabetes, hypertension and intestinal worms. Wood used to make pencils, boxes, matches and drum cylinders. Tall straight trunks used to make masts of sailing ships, hence the common name, Mast Tree.
Native: India and Srilanka
General Description:

The name Ashok has stuck in north India, although the "real" Ashok is what is also called Sita Ashok. The weeping, branching habit of this 25-foot tall tree gives it a narrow columnar shape. Glossy green, long, narrow leaves have attractive wavy edges. Ashok is commonly seen as a lofty column, very graceful with its downward-sweeping branchlets and shining, green foliage; but sometimes wide-spreading slender branches issue from the straight trunk and form a compact symmetrical crown. It is a very popular tree in India. The bark is smooth and dark greyish-brown. Flowers appear during March and April. For a short period — two or three weeks only — the tree is covered with a profusion of delicate, star-like flowers, which, being palest-green in colour, give the tree a peculiar hazy appearance. They grow in clusters from small protuberances all along the dark branchlets. Each flower, borne on a slim, green stem has a tiny calyx and six long, narrow, wavy petals arranged in two sets of three.