Aegle Marmelos

This mid-sized, slender, aromatic, gum-bearing tree has branches clad in leaves with three leaflets and greenish white, sweetly scented flowers, that finally transform into the amazing smooth-shelled "bael fruit" that can be eaten either fresh or dried and tastes of marmalade, although it actually smells of roses! Sacred by Hindus, it is known to produce one of the most commonly used fruits in Ayurvedic treatments as well as other traditional systems of medicine. In the traditional Newari culture of Nepal, this tree is part of a girls fertility ritual known as the Bel baha. Girls are "married" to the bael fruit, and as long as the fruit is kept safe and never cracks, the girl can never become widowed, even if her human husband dies. This was protection against the social disdain suffered by widows in that community.