The Seeta Ashok, a native tree of India

Prasannaji sent me this picture and wrote : 'Seeta Ashok in full bloom. At a public park in Jhansi. I was there last week and came across it during my morning walk.'

He told me this is supposed to be the Ashok in Ashok Vatika in Lanka where Sita was forced to stay by Ravana. The tall, columnar Ashok we see more frequently is the false Ashok !

J.M.Garg

कहते हैं लुंबिनी में बुद्ध का जन्म भी सीता-अशोक के वृक्ष के नीचे ही हुआ था। इसलिए बौद्ध धर्म में यह एक पूज्य वृक्ष माना गया है। कहते तो यह भी हैं कि महावीर ने अपना प्रथम उपदेश सीता-अशोक के वृक्ष के नीचे ही बैठ कर दिया था। रामायण में वर्णित अशोक वाटिका को भी सीता-अशोक के कुंजों की वाटिका माना गया है। कालीदास ने अपने काव्य ‘ऋतु संहार’ और नाटकों में अशोक के वृक्ष का मनोहारी वर्णन किया है।

Wikipedia

One of the recurring elements in Indian art, often found at gates of Buddhist and Hindu temples, is The sculpture of a yakshini with her foot on the trunk and her hands holding the branch of a flowering ashoka tree. 

Yakshinis are mythical beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain mythology. They are attendees of Kubera, the Hindu god of wealth. 

This figure is from Madhya Pradesh, 2nd century BC, and this picture was taken in 1875 by the Archeological survey of india.

সৌরদীপ

As a wild tree, the ashoka is a 

vulnerable species. It is becoming rarer in its natural habitat in India.