PraSud Food Forest Directions

The planting register

Every plant the forest names, with what to look for when you stand in front of it. A photograph carries a name only where the plant could be identified with confidence.

How to read an entry

Name
The common name.
Scientific name
In italics, where the exact species is known.
Look for
What you would see on the plant.
Worth knowing
One fact about the plant.
Tags in the photos
Numbers read from the white tags on the trees. Each opens the photograph of that tree. The small print on every tag is blurred for privacy, and on some photographs that covers the number too.
A white tag tied to a stake with twine. It shows a green leaf logo, the name of the farm and the number 270.
270A tag on its stake: the name of the farm at the top, the number of the tree below.

Fruit trees

  • Mango. Young tree with drooping coppery-pink and yellow-green new leaves above darker foliage, straw mulch and a drip line at its base, in grass.

    Mango

    Mangifera indica
    Look for
    Long, narrow leaves with a pale midrib, bunched at the tips of the shoots. New leaves come out copper-red and limp, then harden to dark green.
    Worth knowing
    Mango is the national fruit of India, and it belongs to the same plant family as cashew.

    Tags in the photos

  • Jackfruit. Young branching tree with large glossy oval leaves and pale midribs in bright sun, a small tag on a branch, forest behind.

    Jackfruit

    Artocarpus heterophyllus
    Look for
    Glossy, leathery, dark green leaves with a pale midrib. On young trees some leaves can be lobed.
    Worth knowing
    Jackfruit is the largest fruit borne on any tree: it can grow to about 90 cm long and weigh up to about 50 kg.

  • Breadfruit

    Artocarpus altilis
    Look for
    Huge, glossy leaves cut deeply into pointed lobes, with pale yellow veins.
    Worth knowing
    It is named for the cooked fruit, whose texture is often compared to freshly baked bread.

  • Mangosteen

    Garcinia mangostana
    Look for
    Thick, leathery leaves in opposite pairs, with a pale midrib. New leaves are rosy.
    Worth knowing
    Mangosteen grows very slowly: a tree raised from seed may fruit after 7 to 9 years, but often takes 10 years or more.

  • Jamun

    Syzygium cumini
    Look for
    Smooth, glossy leaves in opposite pairs, pinkish when young.
    Worth knowing
    Its sweet-sour, purple-black fruit is known for staining the tongue purple.
  • Guava. Bushy young tree with paired oval leaves marked by strong parallel veins, growing from straw mulch among tall grass and weeds.

    Guava

    Psidium guajava
    Look for
    Oval leaves in opposite pairs with deep, parallel side veins. They are fragrant when crushed.
    Worth knowing
    Guava comes from tropical America, and its fruit is very rich in vitamin C.

  • Avocado

    Persea americana
    Look for
    Glossy, leathery leaves, oval to lance-shaped, often reddish when young.
    Worth knowing
    Each avocado flower opens twice: first as a female flower, and later as a male one.

  • Sugar apple

    custard apple, sitaphal Annona squamosa
    Look for
    Thin, dull green leaves held singly along slightly zigzag twigs.
    Worth knowing
    It is thought to come from tropical America, despite its Indian name sitaphal.

  • Pomegranate

    Punica granatum
    Look for
    A bushy, often spiny shrub with small, narrow, glossy leaves.
    Worth knowing
    Botanically the fruit is a berry, packed with hundreds of seeds, each in its own juicy coat.

  • Amla

    Indian gooseberry Phyllanthus emblica
    Look for
    Feathery sprays of tiny, narrow leaves set in two neat rows.
    Worth knowing
    Its round, very sour fruit is eaten fresh, pickled or preserved.

  • Bael

    Aegle marmelos
    Look for
    A thorny tree whose leaves mostly come in threes.
    Worth knowing
    Bael leaves are offered to Lord Shiva, and the hard-shelled fruit takes 10 to 11 months to ripen.

  • Cocoa

    Theobroma cacao
    Look for
    Large, simple leaves. At about a metre or so the young stem stops and fans out into three to five side branches.
    Worth knowing
    Cocoa flowers and pods grow straight out of the trunk and older branches.

  • Moringa

    drumstick tree Moringa oleifera
    Look for
    A fast, slender tree with soft, feathery leaves divided into many small oval leaflets.
    Worth knowing
    The long green pods, the drumsticks, are cooked as a vegetable, and so are the leaves and flowers.

Photographs

  • Mango. Young tree with drooping coppery-pink and yellow-green new leaves above darker foliage, straw mulch and a drip line at its base, in grass.
    MangoCoppery new leaves crown a young tree on its bed of straw mulch.
  • Mango. Young tree with a drooping flush of coppery-pink and yellow-green new leaves and a white tag; a large tree trunk, hills and blue sky behind.
    MangoA flush of coppery-pink new leaves with the hills behind.
  • Mango. Young tree with long drooping leaves in coppery bronze, dark green and fresh light green, between lush grass and a bare soil path.
    MangoCoppery new leaves flushing on a young tree.
  • Mango. Young tree with long drooping light-green leaves and a white tag reading 258 on its slim trunk, tall grass and broad leaves behind.
    258MangoTree number 258, flush with fresh green leaves.
  • Mango. Young tree with long, narrow drooping leaves in bright dry-season sun, a white tag numbered 271 tied to its trunk.
    271MangoTree number 271 in fresh leaf during the dry season.
  • Mango. Young tree with long narrow wavy-edged leaves beside a wooden stake; a white tag numbered 463 hangs in front; stones and a drip pipe below.
    463MangoTree number 463, staked and ringed with stones.
  • Mango. Young staked tree with clusters of long, drooping pale yellow new leaves and a white tag numbered 535, amid dense green undergrowth.
    535MangoFresh pale new leaves on tree number 535.
  • Mango. Tall slender young tree with long drooping leaves and a white numbered tag on its trunk, in a sunny weedy clearing.
    293MangoTree number 293 reaching for the sun.
  • Mango. Slender young tree with whorls of long narrow dark green leaves and a small white tag on its trunk, in undergrowth below a forested slope.
    289MangoA young tree stretching up against the forest backdrop.
  • Mango. Young sapling with whorls of long narrow wavy-edged leaves beside a bamboo stake, in a straw-mulched basin with a drip line and rocks.
    MangoStaked, mulched and watered drop by drop.
  • Mango. Young tree with long drooping dark-green wavy-edged leaves in sunlit woodland, with a red-soil clearing and taller trees behind.
    MangoLong leaves catching the light at the forest edge.
  • Mango. Young sapling with long wavy-edged drooping leaves beside a wet red-earth track with a puddle, green forest behind.
    MangoLong, wavy leaves on a sapling beside the rain-soaked track.
  • Jackfruit. Young branching tree with large glossy oval leaves and pale midribs in bright sun, a small tag on a branch, forest behind.
    JackfruitGlossy leaves on a young tree at the forest edge.
  • Jackfruit. Bushy young tree with thick glossy oval leaves, pale green new growth on top and dark green leaves below, against green undergrowth.
    JackfruitFresh pale-green growth on a thriving young tree.
  • Guava. Bushy young tree with paired oval leaves marked by strong parallel veins, growing from straw mulch among tall grass and weeds.
    GuavaA bushy young tree thriving on straw mulch and drip irrigation.
  • Guava. Young tree with upright shoots of paired, strongly veined oval leaves on a black weed mat with a drip pipe, in lush green ground cover.
    GuavaA young tree standing tall in the monsoon grass.

Citrus

  • Lemon

    Lemon or lime: in India the name nimbu is used for both.
    Look for
    Glossy leaves that smell of citrus when crushed, on twigs that are often thorny.

  • Pomelo

    Citrus maxima
    Look for
    Large, leathery leaves on a leaf stalk with a broad wing.
    Worth knowing
    The pomelo is the largest citrus fruit, and an ancestor of the grapefruit.

Palms

  • Coconut. Young palm with tall feathery fronds and orange-yellow leaf stalks on black weed mat with a drip pipe and stones.

    Coconut

    Cocos nucifera
    Look for
    Feather-shaped fronds. A young palm grows straight out of the whole nut, still in its husk, which stays at its base.
    Worth knowing
    On Narali Poornima, around the end of the monsoon, coconuts are offered to the sea. Naral is the Marathi word for coconut.

    Tags in the photos

  • Arecanut. Young palm with a slender green stem and arching feathery fronds; a black drip pipe and straw mulch at its base.

    Arecanut

    supari Areca catechu
    Look for
    A single slender, ringed stem that never forms a clump, topped by a crown of long feathery leaves.
    Worth knowing
    The arecanut is not a true nut but the seed of the palm fruit.

    Tags in the photos

Photographs

  • Coconut. Base of a young plant with long strap-like fronds on smooth yellow-green stalks and a brown fibrous sheath, stones and straw at its foot.
    CoconutLong fronds rising from a fibrous base ringed with stones and straw.
  • Coconut. Young palm with long arching feathery fronds and a small white tag, rising from a straw-mulched base among dense green weeds.
    283CoconutA tagged young palm spreading its fronds over the mulch.
  • Coconut. Young palm with bright orange leaf stalks and green-and-yellow fronds, a numbered tag on one frond, straw mulch and grass at its base.
    278CoconutBright orange stalks make this young palm hard to miss.
  • Coconut. Young palm with long arching feathery fronds and a fibrous brown base, on a black weed mat among lush undergrowth.
    CoconutFeathery fronds arching over the forest floor.
  • Coconut. Young palm with tall feathery fronds and orange-yellow leaf stalks on black weed mat with a drip pipe and stones.
    CoconutA young palm spreading its fronds amid monsoon green.
  • Arecanut. Young palm with broad pleated yellow-green fronds and a slender green stem in dense undergrowth, a white numbered tag among the fronds.
    344ArecanutPalm no. 344 standing tall among the greenery.
  • Arecanut. Young palm with a slender green stem and arching feathery fronds; a black drip pipe and straw mulch at its base.
    ArecanutA young palm settles in with drip irrigation and straw mulch.
  • Arecanut. Sunlit young palm with broad, bright green feathery fronds and a slender green stem; a white tag hangs among the fronds, straw at the base.
    ArecanutSunlight on the fronds of a young palm.

Other plants on the list

  • Black pepper

    Piper nigrum
    Look for
    A climbing vine with swollen joints that grip a support tree with small roots, and glossy, pointed oval leaves.
    Worth knowing
    Black, green and white pepper all come from this one vine.

  • Banana

    Musa
    Look for
    Huge, soft leaves rising from a trunk that is really tightly wrapped leaf sheaths.
    Worth knowing
    A banana plant is a giant herb, not a tree, and each stem fruits only once.

  • Blueberry

    Which blueberry grows here is not yet recorded.
    Look for
    A twiggy, many-stemmed bush with small, simple leaves.
    Worth knowing
    Blueberries come from North America and need acid soil; warm places grow low-chill varieties.

  • Blackberry

    Which blackberry grows here is not yet recorded.

  • Giant bamboo

    Listed by the farm as gigantus bamboo. The exact species is not yet recorded.
    Look for
    Tall, jointed canes growing in a tight clump.
    Worth knowing
    Bamboo is a grass, not a tree.

Also growing

The list of plants ends with the words and many more. These are plants in the photographs that are not on the named list, or that have not been named yet.

  • Pineapple. Top-down view of a spiky rosette of long red-tinged leaves with a green scaly fruit and leafy crown at its centre.

    Pineapple

    Ananas comosus
    Look for
    A rosette of stiff, spiny, strap-shaped leaves at ground level; the fruit appears later on a stalk rising from the centre.
    Worth knowing
    Each pineapple is many fruits fused into one, formed from up to about 200 flowers.

Photographs, named and not yet named

  • Pineapple. Top-down view of a spiky rosette of long red-tinged leaves with a green scaly fruit and leafy crown at its centre.
    PineappleA fruit ripening at the heart of its spiky rosette.
  • Pineapple. Top-down view of a rosette of long pink-red spiky leaves with a small scaly fruit at the centre, on dry grassy ground.
    PineappleA small fruit forming among rosy, spiky leaves.
  • Sapling with glossy bright green oval leaves beside a wooden stake carrying a white tag numbered 270, surrounded by leafy undergrowth.
    270Tree number 270, glossy and green beside its stake.
  • Young tree with drooping, deeply veined light-green leaves in a stone-edged straw-mulched basin, with a leaning bamboo stake and tag.
    376Tree no. 376: mulched, staked and ringed with stones.
  • Small sapling seen from above with whorls of dusky purple-bronze narrow leaves, straw mulch and grey stones at its base, weeds around.
    A young sapling dressed in dusky purple-bronze leaves.
  • Top view of a tiny seedling with a rosette of dark green toothed leaves on straw mulch, a black drip pipe curving past, stones and a stake.
    A tiny seedling, mulched, staked and watered by drip.
  • Top-down view of a young sapling with large rounded pale-veined leaves on straw mulch, beside a bamboo stake and black drip lines.
    A young sapling settles in on its bed of straw mulch.
  • Clump of arching leafy shoots with long glossy lance-shaped leaves seen from above, on red soil with dry leaves and a drip line.
    A lush clump of glossy leaves, watered by a drip line.
  • Young tree with large, long, deeply ribbed, saw-edged green leaves radiating from an upright stem, straw mulch and stones at the base.
    Boldly ribbed leaves on a young tree in the forest shade.
  • Sapling with very large, glossy, deeply lobed leaves tied to a stake with a yellow ribbon and a white tag, forest undergrowth around.
    Big, deeply lobed leaves on a staked sapling in the forest undergrowth.
  • Top view of a small seedling with a rosette of rounded, veined leaves on black weed mat inside a ring of stones.
    A tiny seedling, snug in its ring of stones.
  • Top-down view of a young sapling with large, glossy, rain-wet leaves on a green stem in red gravelly soil.
    Rain-washed leaves on a young sapling.

Come and see them

Walk-in visitors are welcome.

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