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trees through toponyms, and preserve, in folk memory, what is effectively a histori-
cal record of large forest trees or even smaller plants (including crop plants) that are
no longer present. One such example is tenginamarada ko:bu ‘coconut tree valley’,
which recalls the fact that there used to be a British-initiated coconut plantation at
this site, whose trees were later cut down for timber.
Other historical botanical events may also be encoded in place name s, prominent
among these being the fl owering of plietesial species such as bamboo. These plants
take many years to mature, fl ower only once in their lifetimes, and die shortly after-
wards, having produced an abundance of seeds in a single burst. Clumps of dead
bamboo are called kaṭṭe in Solega, and a small number of toponyms make reference
to such clumps, as in kaṭṭe ba:vi ‘senescent bamboo well’. The importance of such
bio-historical information should not be underestimated, especially in the light of
modern-day ecological problems facing the Solega’s traditional lands. These include
the rampant growth of the invasive woody weed Lantana camara over large swathes
of the forest understorey, and the resultant suppression of local grasses, herbs and
shrubs. Solega toponyms that commemorate dead trees may, in the not too distant
future, provide valuable clues to the historical biodiversity of the forest, as they
encode, with a high degree of precision, both the species and location of the named
tree(s). This is especially relevant in the context of Lantana invasion, as most
Solega are able to name many herbs and grasses that have now become locally
extinct. For example, the toponym kau͂ri ba:vi refers to Helicteres isora , a common
shrub ( kaũri in Solega) that is said to be favored by elephants , and is now rare.
Similary, the names of grasses like sabakana hullu and nose hullu , which were
abundant when the Solega still practised their leaf litter fi res , will in future probably
exist only in Solega toponyms like sabakana gadde ‘ sabaka .grass marsh ’ and nose
arre ‘ nose .grass rock.platform’.
Solega place name s often make reference to crop plants which were once grown
by the inhabitants of now-abandoned settlements. Examples include soreka:ye beṭṭa
‘gourd mountain’, battada gadde ‘paddy marsh ’, jo:ḷada bare beṭṭa ‘corn boulder
mountain’ and ba:ḷe arre ‘banana rock.platform’. Others like ne:ri haṭṭi and atti
haṭṭi ( haṭṭi = cowshed) refer to historical practices when cattle in large numbers
(belonging to non-Solega peoples) were brought up from the plains to the hills in
summer when grass was scarce in the lower elevations. Even though these crops or
structures are no longer to be found in these locations, the names indicate key peri-
ods in the bio-cultural history of these ancestral communities.
3.8 The Naming of Individual Trees
Individual trees are often singled out for recognition by the Solega, by virtue of their
religious , utilitarian or perceptual properties. Like place name s, tree names are also
compound lexemes, but here the head noun (the fi nal element) is the name of the
tree species, while the modifi ers can include nouns or adjectives that encode a
salient attribute of the tree, or even a full toponym that marks the locality where the
3 Plants in Solega Language and Culture