Published by Aparna on 08 Jun 2007 at 10:23 pm
konRai pookaL
Many parts of Chennai were adorned by these beautiful ’sara konRai’ flowers until a couple of weeks back. (Even now the flowers are still present but, the yellow colour of the flowers has started to fade away.) These flowers look so beautiful covering the whole tree with very few leaves visible! The sara konRai flowers are considered to be sacred for Lord Shiva. Say konRai pookaL and the first thing that comes to my mind immediately is the line from ‘Pachchai Nirame’, ‘konRai poovil kuLittha manjaL’! 
The botanical name of this flower is Cassia Fistula
Here are some snaps of the lovely flowers that I took a few weeks back:
In case you are interested, click on the photos for larger size snaps.
Prabhu on 08 Jun 2007 at 10:39 pm #
konRai pookaL madras engum malarattume
vidiyum bhoomi kuLukuLu nnu vidiyattume
Nithya on 09 Jun 2007 at 10:01 am #
Hey..NEat pics there
We refer to these flowers as “Kani Poo” at home 
This is the first time I’ve come across the work Konrai Poo 
Nithya on 09 Jun 2007 at 10:03 am #
word*
sivaramang on 09 Jun 2007 at 11:18 am #
First class Pictures and a new info - cassia Fistula!- Nice.
Sathej on 09 Jun 2007 at 1:03 pm #
Hello Aparna,
Some nice pictures complete with the botanical name. The enlarged versions are really good! And just to add, it seems this is the ’state’ flower of Kerala.Interesting!
Sathej
Aparna on 09 Jun 2007 at 9:46 pm #
Nithya, Sivaraman & Sathej,
Thanks
daneel olivaw on 10 Jun 2007 at 12:21 am #
waah waah.
Sai Prasad Viswanathan on 10 Jun 2007 at 10:32 am #
Aaha..wonderful pics..Chennai in full bloom
you making me home-sick now 
Aparna on 10 Jun 2007 at 12:22 pm #
Sai,
Thank you!
Aparna on 11 Jun 2007 at 7:40 am #
Daneel,
Thank you
ramya on 12 Jun 2007 at 11:00 pm #
hey aparna, nice pics!
Aparna on 13 Jun 2007 at 7:25 am #
Ramya,
Thanks
ranjhith on 14 Jun 2007 at 2:05 am #
Yeppala irunthu Botany yellam pesa thodangineenga?
Flowerbloom - I remember a similar sight in Blore. Its in Koramangala, the opp lane of Sukh Sagar, the road of Ooty Chocolates.
Its not Cassia Fistula. But some other flower. Grown from a tree, its pink & white - not the paper flower you generally find on compound fences. This is very diff & good looking. Specially if you look at the roads below - during the early hours - these flowers scattered all around - like in the movie KadhalDesam. ok. Enjoy.
Aparna on 14 Jun 2007 at 8:32 am #
Ranjhith,
Wow! That must have been a treat for the eyes 
Blogla edhavadhu additional info about the flower kudukkalaannu Google serach paNNi kandu piduchadhudhaan
Aparna’s Blog » Flowers Galore! on 18 May 2008 at 9:55 pm #
[…] that Copperpods are known as koNRai/konnai or konnaivagai in Tamil. And yeah this is not the same koNRai/sara koNRai/sara konnai about which I had blogged last year) and Rain tree/Monkey pod (thoongumoonji maram in Tamil) being […]