Ashoka Tree

(Jonesia ashoka) Flowering tree traditionally associated with love and fertility. When in bloom, the Ashoka tree is
covered with red flowers—a color typically associated with passion—that contrast with its green foliage. According to
tradition, the ashoka tree will not bloom
until it has been kicked by a young
woman’s foot, implying the transfer of
her fertile energy to the tree.
The Ashoka tree is also famous in the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two great
Hindu epics. When Sita is kidnapped by
Ravana, the demon-king of Lanka, she
is imprisoned in a grove of Ashoka trees,
where she pines away waiting to be rescued by her husband Rama.
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Ashoka Tree