12 Aug 2021:
The Lions
Club of Perak Silver State (LCPSS) and Ipoh City Council in collaboration with
St. Michael Institution (SMI) organised a tree planting programme to plant four
more trees.
Under the theme “Green OUR Earth Save Our Future Generations”, the campaign aims at creating awareness among the society especially students on the importance of planting trees. Tree planting helps in carbon emission and reduce earth temperature.
Four trees will be planted which consists of 3 Mempari (or Pongamia Pinnata) trees and 1 Yellow Flame (Peltophorum pterocarpum) tree.
The tree
planting is part of LCPSS environmental project aims to save our planet earth
and mitigate climate change as stated in United Nation Sustainable Goal number
13. LCPSS aim to plant 100 trees by end of 2021.
To date LCPSS have planted 28 trees since August 2020 and benefitted over 10,000 people. The campaign is also part of Ipoh City Council’s objective of planting 1,500 trees a year. This is to fulfil its mission of achieving a Low Carbon City by 2030. Each tree planted is given a QR Code that contains information about who planted and when planted, name of tree and its detailed information. It will later be link to Ipoh City Council innovative award winning Ez3 system of identification trees in Ipoh.
Present to
support our campaign is Guest of Honour YB Leong Cheok Keng, who is also the
State Assemblyman for Malim Nawar and Advisor of Chinese Community Affair for
Minister of Housing and Local Government. Also present include Ipoh City
Councillor for Zone 8, Mohammad Iskandar Abdul Rahman and SMI Principal, Sit
Wai Yin.
Three Mempari trees (Pongamia Pinnata) and one Yellow Flame tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum) costing RM600 each were provided by Ipoh City Council. These trees when matured after 10 years are capable of absorbing 3,400 kg of CO2 per year. These trees absorb CO2 and produce Oxygen during photosynthesis thus give us fresh air and more oxygen. To date the city of Ipoh has over 200,000 trees of different species.
Details of Yellow Flame Tree or Pelthophorum pterocarpum can be found in this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltophorum_pterocarpum
Description of Tree:
It is a deciduous tree growing to 15–25 m (rarely up to 50 m) tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m belonging to Family Leguminosae and sub-family Caesalpiniaceaea. The leaves are bipinnate, 30–60 cm long, with 16–20 pinnae, each pinna with 20–40 oval leaflets 8–25 mm long and 4–10 mm broad. The flowers are yellow, 2.5–4 cm diameter, produced in large compound raceme up to 20 cm long. Pollens are approximately 50 microns in size.
Name of Tree: Yellow Flame Tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum) The fruit is a pod 5–10 cm long and 2.5 cm broad, red at first, ripening black, and containing one to four seeds. Trees begin to flower after about four years.
Details of Mempari (Pongamia Pinnata):
Features: The tree grows to 6-15m tall. The compound leaves appear in two rows, each heart-shaped leaflet is shiny, dark green and thinly leathery. The flowers look like those of bean plants, and are lilac, appearing in bunches on a stalk. Tiny insects seem attracted to the flowers. Fruits are flat bean-like pods that are somewhat oval with a little beak at the tip, appearing in bunches. Each pod contains one seed.
Human uses: The leaves are fed to livestock. The bark is used to make string and rope. Although the seeds are poisonous, an oil extracted from them (called Pongamol or hongay oil) is used for lighting, to manufacture soap and candles, and in medicinal uses. The roots and seeds are used as a fish poison in Australia and Indonesia. Various parts of the trees are also used in traditional medicine.. According to Tomlinson and Giesen, the tree is often planted as a shade tree along roads, but Corners says it is rarely planted in Malaya.
