A family’s cherished ‘star tree’ turns out to be a new species

Researchers name it Madhuca balakrishnanii after late Balakrishna Pillai who preserved it in his compound

An evergreen tree lovingly protected by a family in Thodiyoor panchayat in Kollam district has turned out to be a new species of the genus Madhuca. Researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI), Palode, who made the identification have named it Madhuca balakrishnanii (family Sapotaceae) after the late Balakrishna Pillai of Madathinal Thekkatthil, Muzhangodi, who preserved it as a ‘star tree’ in his compound. A paper on the discovery by E.S. Santhosh Kumar, S. Shailajakumari, and S. Muhammed Shareef of JNTBGRI has been published in the journal Phytotaxa. What led to the tree’s identification makes for an interesting story. In 2020, a JNTBGRI team, which included Dr. Santhosh Kumar and Dr. Shailajakumari, had published the discovery of another species of the same genus, Madhuca diplostemon, which was long thought to be extinct, from a sacred grove in Paravur, Kollam.