Bangalore: The scientific community in Bangalore was thrilled when a huge Liana climber in front of the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) bore fruits for the first time since it was planted there in 1989.

This endangered forest plant considered to be a Western Ghats specie() is distributed throughout the forests of Karnataka and selectively in places like the BRT forests and other semi-evergreen and ever­ green forests. The significant point is that the many attempts that have been made to grow it in urban areas have met with failure.  Generally known as the Palle Kai in Kannada, this plant which is rich in saponin, gluco­side and alkaloid contents, is used to treat joint pains and swelling.  The climber which yields long brown pods that can grow up to four feet was planted by Dr. T V Ramachandra, Dr D M Bhat and Dr Ranjit Daniels, 15 years ago. Now, it towers high above the Department building providing a natural shade for the students. V V Shivan, a researcher at CES who was the first to sight this fruit was so thrilled with the sight that he called his colleagues to show them the fruit.

"It is indeed a mystery how this climber has begun fruit­ing. We have seen Dr Ramachandra struggle hard to just keep the plant alive," wonders Shivan. "This is simply great news for us," exclaims Harish Bhat, another CES researcher.   

The researchers were particularly surprised at the climber bearing fruits because it has been found that the plant required a particular insect to pollinate it. And this insect is found only in the forests, another detail which makes it a difficult proposition for the plant to bear fruits in the urban areas. The researchers, however, state that although it is known that a particular species of insect is required to pollinate the climber studies have not yet been carried out on the par­ticular insect.

Given the amount of specific attention that this plan! needs, the CES team considers this as one of the rarest cases where a plant has not just grown but also has borne fruits. Says another senior researcher P Jaganath, "I have 1 never come across an example where this plant has grown and borne fruits anywhere apart from the forests, not even in areas close to the forests because this climber is endem­ic to the forests alone." Scientifically known as the Entada pursaetha, the Liana was brought from the Uttara Kannada forests by senior CES, researchers. And ever since there has been a debate on whether the climber would bear fruit, because of its dependency on insects for pollination. Though the plant had flow­ered earlier, this is the first time that it has borne a fruit, " thereby attracting the attention of the researchers.  But none of them were able to suggest an explanation for the miracle of nature that resulted in the flowering of a plant in foreign conditions such as this.