Ellora Caves Teak Forest Trees Anchor Ellora Caves Rain Gardens

Summary: Ellora Caves teak forest trees in Ellora Caves rain gardens add artful nature to west India's architecturally, artistically attractive Ellora Caves.

overview map of Ellora Caves in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Sunday, March 21, 2010: Gatis Pāvils, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Ellora Caves teak forest trees artistically anchor the aerated, moist, nutrient-rich soils of environmentally friendly, natural Ellora Caves rain gardens in Ellora (from Sanskrit एलापुर, "sacred site"), Maharashtra state, western peninsular India.

Rain gardens bolster soil moisture pore spaces and brake stormwater runoff even as teak forest leaf litter and root systems build aerated, fertile, porous, well-drained soils. The Ellora Caves teak forest in natural, overlapping Ellora Caves rain gardens commemorate 10-million-year-long rock and soil-conducive processes from 56 million to 66 million years ago. The painted, sculpted Ellora Caves, United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site since 1983, date from the fifth through 15th centuries C.E.

Itinerant artisans and monks established the Ellora Caves on a 1.23-mile (2-plus-kilometer-) long basaltic cliff in the Western Ghats, entitled locally Sahyadri (from Sanskrit सह्याद्रि, "benevolent").

Its tropical monsoon climate favors the Ellora Caves with temperatures between 71.6 and 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit (22 and 32 degrees Celsius) during each year's rainy season.

The pleasant monsoon months from June through September generate the natural Ellora Caves rain gardens with their understory, climber, canopy-level Ellora Caves teak forest woody plants. The Ellora Caves teak forest has many more teak (sag locally, Tectona grandis scientifically) trees than any other species in its canopy level of tallest trees. The Ellora Caves gardens include almondette (charoli, Buchanania lanzan) trees, also identified as Indian almond trees, and 18 other Ellora Caves teak forest tree species.

Scarp holding capacities jeopardize axle wood (dhavra, Anogeissus latifolia), bidi leaf (apta, Bauhinia racemosa) and other Ellora Caves teak forest trees in Ellora Caves rain gardens.

Black cutch (khair, Senegalia catechu) and bottle gourd (dudhi, Lagenaria siceraria) trees keep Ellora Caves teak forest floors of Ellora Caves rain gardens sun-dappled but cool.

Fan palm (lendi, Borassus flabellifer), Indian blackwood (anjan, Hardwickia binata) and other Ellora Caves teak forest tree roots lead to aerated, exudate (waste-) laden, moist soils. Energizing, sugary exudates of golden shower (bahawa, Cassia fistula) trees, monikkered Indian laburnum as subcontinental laburnum (Laburnum alpinum, L. anagyroides) lookalikes, maintain soil food web members. Golden stone apple (bel, Aegle marmelos) trees, also named golden wood apples, like other Ellora Caves teak forest trees, nestle into soils that their roots nurture.

Indian frankincense (salai, Boswellia serrata) and Indian gooseberry (amla, Phyllanthus emblica) trees offer Ellora Caves teak forest wildlife shelter and sustenance in Ellora Caves rain gardens.

The Ellora Caves teak forest present the naturally overlapping Ellora Caves rain gardens with Indian linden (dhaman, Grewia tiliifolia) and Indian plum (ber, Ziziphus mauritiana) trees.

The Ellora Caves teak forest queues up Indian rosewood (bija, Pterocarpus marsupium) and Indian sandalwood (chandan, Santalum album) trees for the natural Ellora Caves rain gardens. The Lord Krishna tree (kalam, Mitragyna parvifolia) remains a favorite of the Hindu god of compassion, love and tenderness and of regional practitioners of traditional medicine. The Ellora Caves teak forest supports in its monsoon-sustained natural Ellora Caves rain gardens marking nut (bhilawa, Semecarpus anacardium) and thorny acacia (babul, Vachellia nilotica) trees.

Ecosystem roles task Ellora Caves teak forest trees in Ellora Caves rain gardens with transmitting natural beauty to architecturally, artistically beautiful 800 to 1,600-year-old Ellora Caves.

view of vegetation from Ellora Cave 29; Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 14:54: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

overview map of Ellora Caves in Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Sunday, March 21, 2010: Gatis Pāvils, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ElloraWik.jpg

view of vegetation from Ellora Cave 29; Maharashtra state, western peninsular India; Monday, Sep. 12, 2016, 14:54: Ms Sarah Welch, CC BY SA 4.0 International, @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellora_caves,_view_from_Cave_29_(Hindu).jpg

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