The casuarina tree that stands tall and erect like a sentry at the entrance of my house is quite old. One of the many nurseries near my home, which do brisk business during annual tree planting festival, sold it to my son who was a toddler then.
He was very excited to plant it straight away right by the entrance gate. He had a slight lisp and would call it ‘signorina.’ I found this name amusing and would add ‘capuccina’ to rhyme with it and together will attempt to sing like Nat king Cole, ‘Signorina cappuccina…’ See https://youtu.be/473iSrntaac
To our dismay, the casuarina turned out to be of a dwarf variety and refused to grow beyond a few feet. In course of time my son finished school, went to college and had outgrown the casuarina’s height.
It didn’t deserve even a glance from him. But then one day we noticed a colony of white ants had covered its trunk. To save the tree we sprayed a household insecticide liberally on the white ant colony.
For unknown reasons, this exercise rejuvenated the dwarf casuarina and it started growing at a rapid pace. Today it serves as some sort of a live Christmas tree on festive occasions like Diwali and Christmas when we put tiny LED lights that gives it an awesome look that stops the onlookers.