The golden shower- A plant with golden flowers

 

Scientific name: Cassia fistula

Common names:This plant is known with different names like the golden shower, pudding pipe-tree ,Indian laburnum.

More about it: The plant is a small tree with pinnate leaves and has small oval  leaflets.
They are mostly used as an ornamental plant because of it pendulous flowers(raceme) which looks like chandeliers. They are bright yellow in color looking like gold. They flower once in a year during the month of April. But now a days because of the change in climate ,we can see them blooming in odd months.

This tree is native to Asian continents and  it is the state flower of Kerala- the southern state in India.

In Kerala this plant is known as "Kannikonna" and related to the Hindu festival Vishu. This has another different story which I will share later sometime.

Cultural background: 

Now lets see  how this plant came to earth according to Hindu mythology.
Long back ,when caste discrimination was exiting in India(sadly, it still exits), the people from lower caste were not allowed to enter the temples in Kerala.
Everyday a little boy from a lower caste used to visit the  temple of Lord Krishna but nobody allowed him to enter the temple. One day he standing in front of the temple ,he cried and prayed that he want to see his god.
That day a small boy came to play with him. Evening after playing, the small boy gifted the boy a gold chain.
The next morning ,as usual when the priest opened the door of the shrine to do the prayer, he was shocked to see that one of the chains on the idol(of Lord Krishna ) was missing.  They searched everywhere but couldn't find it. 
Then one of the commoners there shared a doubt that may be the little boy  who used to come here everyday might have stolen it. 
So everyone went to the little boy's house and yes, they found the chain around  his neck. 
So now you can guess what happened next. 
Even though the boy told truth ,no  one believed.
They didn't wanted their god to wear something worn by a person from lower caste. So they snatched the chain and throw it away .
Guess what happened?? 
The chain fell on a dry tree and suddenly the whole tree bloom into golden yellow flowers.

Everyone saw the lord Krishna sitting on that tree.
This tree is our Kannikonna or Cassia fistula.

The common uses of the plant:

The plant is extensively used to clean the stomach and cure swellings or wounds.

Almost all the parts of the plant is used and has very importance in Ayurveda. 

The parts are cleaned ,then sun-dried and powdered. The powder is used for making decoctions and used when needed.