{"id":27700,"date":"2025-10-27T04:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=27700"},"modified":"2025-10-29T13:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T08:05:54","slug":"alstonia-scholaris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/alstonia-scholaris\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Alstonia scholaris?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Alstonia scholaris:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Alstonia scholaris, commonly called <strong>blackboard tree, scholar tree<\/strong>, <strong>milkwood, or devil&#8217;s tree<\/strong> in English, is an <strong>evergreen tropical tree<\/strong> in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae).<\/li>\n<li>It is called <strong>&#8216;Saptaparna&#8217; in India<\/strong>. It has been cited in the Charaka and Sushrutha Samhithas.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Distribution<\/strong>: This tree is widespread across the <strong>Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia<\/strong>, and <strong>southern China<\/strong>, thriving in tropical and subtropical climates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Features<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>It grows to a <strong>height of10\u201320 meters,<\/strong> sometimes reaching up to 40 meters.<\/li>\n<li>It has <strong>dark grey bark<\/strong> and a crown of simple, <strong>whorled leaves arranged in clusters of seven,<\/strong> giving rise to the <strong>name &#8220;saptaparni<\/strong>&#8221; (meaning &#8220;<strong>seven-leaves<\/strong>&#8220;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Flowers<\/strong>: Small, <strong>fragrant, and greenish-white flowers<\/strong> bloom in clusters during late autumn and early winter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Uses<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>The bark, leaves, and other parts of Alstonia scholaris have been used in<strong> traditional medicine<\/strong> for <strong>treating respiratory conditions, fever, skin disorders,<\/strong> and <strong>digestive issues<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The soft, lightweight wood of the blackboard tree was historically used for<strong> making writing slates <\/strong>and <strong>blackboards<\/strong>, which is how it <strong>got the common name &#8220;blackboard tree.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>IUCN status: Least Concern<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1<\/strong>: What are tropical cyclones?<\/h3>\n<p>Tropical cyclones are also called hurricanes or typhoons, depending on the region. A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm that begins over tropical oceans, and they can vary in speed, size, and intensity. Tropical cyclones are the second-most dangerous natural hazards, after earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>News: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/kolkata\/cyclone-dana-eases-chhatim-allergy-suffering-for-kolkata-residents\/articleshow\/114854394.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cyclone Dana brings relief for Kolkatans with chhatim allergy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alstonia scholaris, commonly called blackboard tree, scholar tree, milkwood, or devil&#8217;s tree in English, is an evergreen tropical tree in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}