While making a look around my home, I can see Jackfruit trees ( Artocarpus heterophyllus), Anjily trees ( Artocarpus hirsutus), Mango trees ( Mangifera indica), Papaya ( Carica papaya), Rose apple trees ( Syzygium aqueum), bearing fruits just like an ornamented Indian bride. It is a typical tropical area where the hot summer bears gigantic fruits on native trees.
Fruits are the typical example of the “nature of the nature” – Co-existence. Before the present fruit-bearing Angiosperms evolved, the earth was forested by Gymnosperms, Pteridophytes (ferns), Bryophytes (mosses) etc. which bear no fruits. Gymnosperms or “naked-seed” plants bear seeds but no fruit around.
The evolution of angiosperms was a revolutionary step in establishing a romantic relationship between the motionless producers (trees) and motile consumers (animals and birds). It is clear, the relationship between the grazing animal and the grass is different from that between a fruit -eater and the tree. I don’t know whether a cattle feel emotional relationship with a grass. But, an fruit-eater animal / bird would have a feeling of gratitude towards the tree. That may lead him to use the branches of the tree as bed to spend the night and tree itself as home. Even, the fruiting of tree is seasonal, the emotional attachment persists. On the next season also, if he alive, will come to the same tree.
The animals eat the pulp of the fruit, leaving behind the seed in different places. Indirectly, they are helping the “children” of the tree to grow, as gratitude towards its’ own food provider. In many cases, it is not an intentional action. But, as the lower animals have not enough brain capacity to think in broader context and take decision, probably a Cosmic Intelligence is acting through them !
Jackfruit is a typical compound fruit, where numerous fleshy fruits with big seeds were enclosed inside the spiny hard outer cover.
Before we eat Jackfruit, Mom used to give a fruit from the compound fruit and ask me to throw near to the Jackfruit tree. I asked the reason. Then she is saying that if we are not giving atleast one fruit with seed back, the tree will weep, “They took all my children and did not given me back a single one ! ”. There will not be any so called “scientific base” for it – but it is a practical part of a big chapter of natural science – the law of existence. (Similarly after eating a mango, we throw the mango seed addressing nearby person saying “Give company to the mango seed ” !). One must be able to see the “hearts” of every creations and feel their emotions. That is the primary lesson of any natural sciences.
I was working in forest-side research station, which has plenty of Jackfruit trees. On April and May months, the sweet scent of ripened Jackfruit will fill the wild winds of the forest. Sometime the honey bees gather like a rain cloud around the trees, making rain like applause. Squirrels are looking around each big Jackfruit for a soft part to break its spiny hard outer cover. Then the monkeys came and break the outer portion and take the fruits from inside the compound fruit. They will leave it unfinished. Then the squirrels find its way inside the fruit and eat from inside. Some birds are also making a round and take beakful of the pulp and fly away. Some parts of the fruit will fall down. Butterflies and honeybees will examine it.
This is a demonstration of how fruits strengthen the relationships between various species. The tree itself becomes a dining table, where different organisms sit around for the sweet feast!
The “raw material” for all kinds of fruits is same : Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, water and minerals from the soil. But through different metabolic pathway each tree species produce specific compounds and sugars and fill inside the fruit, giving specific smell and flavor to the fruit. So we can differentiate the taste of mango from that of Jackfruit and orange. We are happy enjoying different tastes as well as the intention of the trees also fulfilled – dispersion of own species. We are simply fooled!
Nature has It’s own way of existence. It consider a grass to big tree, an ant to an elephant alike. And provides what they need. Not what they want !
While the man left his “wildness” and became civilized, he started going away from the mother nature. So, he doesn’t know own needs. Only knows his wishes. So he started fighting with the fellow organisms, while being in the lap of the mother nature, and making it a battle field ! We are going away and away after each moment from the heart of the nature. In other words MAN IS ON HIS WAY FROM HIS ORGANIC NATURE INTO THE MATERIAL NATURE !!!
