Shami Plant

Description

Shami

Shami is highly revered among Hindus and worshipped as part of Dasara festival. This tree is a small moderate sized evergreen thorny tree, with slender branches armed with conical thorns and with light bluish-green foliage.

Prosopis cineraria is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Leaves are double compound. The leaflets are dark green and have a tiny point. The tree is evergreen or nearly so. It produces new flush leaves before summer.

The flowers are small in size and yellow or creamy white in color, appear from March to May after the new flush of leaves. The pods are formed soon thereafter and grow rapidly in size attaining full size in about two months time.

Planting and care 

• It is well adapted to the arid conditions and stands well to the adverse vagaries of climate and browsing by animals.
• Choose the sunniest spot in your garden.
• Water the plant at the only growing season.
• Also, prepare the soil with fertilizers and plant feed before planting the tree.

This plant is propagated through seeds and root suckers. Seed germinates best if the hard seed coat is softened first to allow the ingress of water. Then sow the seeds in the porous potting mix. Monsoon season is best for sowing and planting this plant.