Hi everyone, I would like to share about a tree with beautiful edible flowers growing in our place. The tree is called turi or Sesbana Grandiflora.

When I was a kid I remember my mother used to cook this flowers. As a child I really like the soft texture, and the sweet taste of the flower. Even until now, whenever my wife managed to buy some from the market. When I was a kid, there were a lot of them growing in my neighborhood. Nowadays, since there are more houses built in our place hence decreasing the farming area, you could barely find any of the turi growing.

On one of my cycling I spotted a turi tree growing tall by the side of the road that I passed on. I stopped to have a look at this about 5-metre-tall tree after noticing its vivid red flowers from afar.

There two types of flowers the turi tree has that I know: the red, the white, and mixed of red and white colored flowers. The one I found was red and white. Well, though it seems that the red color dominated the white.

The shape of the flower is like a scythe, but when it blossoms it looks like a butterfly.

These look like a butterfly or a bird. What do you think it looks like?

There are usually several flowers that grow from a branch, not only one.

When the flowers withered, a kind of long bean appeared. I know some people in other island, eat this long bean, but not in my place. The leaves are also edible and are believed to help boost the production of breast milk. The leaves are small and have bitter taste. That's probably why it is not as popular as its flowers although the leaves also have health benefit.

Small leaves, bitter taste.

The long beans among the flowers and leaves.

The trunk of the tree was not very hard. The skin is rough, and when you peel the skin you will find inside it is a bit wet and watery.

Inside the skin, you will find the color of the tree is white and smooth because of the water. In general, the wood is relatively soft.

The tree has small branches and the trunk is not that strong, if you climb the tree, most of the time you will break some branches.

Somehow this rough skin looks beautiful, don't you think so?

The turi tree could grow from 5 until 12 meter tall.

I think the turi tree is quite interesting. I really like its beautiful vibrant color and the taste of the flowers as vegetable. Do you have this tree in your place?