The walled city appears fiery with a riot of colours. Heaps of saffron flowers are being sold like hot cakes on hand carts, especially around Teen Darwaja area.

The flowers are of the tree Butea monosperma or ‘Kesudo’ in Gujarati, also known as Flame of the forest. They are soaked in water to make a deep yellow colour used for playing ‘Dhuleti.’

“We get the flowers mainly from south and central Gujarat, which have forests teeming with Kesudo trees. The flowers bloom between January and March, their peak season. Around this time of the year, we get a huge stock which we transport to various cities. Over a period of the last three years, we have seen a trend showing more use of Kesudo in Holi,” said Jashubhai Parmar, a flower trader at Teen Darwaja. Parmar has sold more than 10 kg of Kesudo daily for the last three days.

While the flowers are essentially scentless, they emit a distinct odor with saffron colour when soaked or boiled in water. People usually soak the flowers for a night and then drain them. The flowers are also used in summer to beat the heat after Holi.

City dermatologists claim that Kesudo has medicinal quality which is very good for skin and hair. “Since the ancient times, Kesudo has been used for playing Holi. The reason is the fact that it has been proved to be a good skin cleanser and also relieve skin diseases such as boils and rash skin in the summer. It’s a good trend that people have started opting for organic colours over synthetic ones,” said a city-based dermatologist. Source by Times Of India