All of us like to look at those pretty flowers blooming all around, especially in winters. Remember that tree laden with yellow flowers, which hang like bunches of grapes? How often have you wondered: What's that flower? Nobody around you seems to know the answer. There was a time, when a lot of people knew about a lot of flowers. But for the city bred individual, flowers are only like pretty pictures. The pace of city life tends to alienate the individual from mother nature, which brought him into existence in the first place. Flowers of India is aimed at having information about all the flowers found in India, with their common names, especially in Indian languages, pictures and habitat, easily available in one place. This is meant to be a place you can look at if you saw a flower and wanted to know more about it. Knowing more about flowers, and then going out and having a look at them, will be more like communing with nature.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Flowers
All of us like to look at those pretty flowers blooming all around, especially in winters. Remember that tree laden with yellow flowers, which hang like bunches of grapes? How often have you wondered: What's that flower? Nobody around you seems to know the answer. There was a time, when a lot of people knew about a lot of flowers. But for the city bred individual, flowers are only like pretty pictures. The pace of city life tends to alienate the individual from mother nature, which brought him into existence in the first place. Flowers of India is aimed at having information about all the flowers found in India, with their common names, especially in Indian languages, pictures and habitat, easily available in one place. This is meant to be a place you can look at if you saw a flower and wanted to know more about it. Knowing more about flowers, and then going out and having a look at them, will be more like communing with nature.
All of us like to look at those pretty flowers blooming all around, especially in winters. Remember that tree laden with yellow flowers, which hang like bunches of grapes? How often have you wondered: What's that flower? Nobody around you seems to know the answer. There was a time, when a lot of people knew about a lot of flowers. But for the city bred individual, flowers are only like pretty pictures. The pace of city life tends to alienate the individual from mother nature, which brought him into existence in the first place. Flowers of India is aimed at having information about all the flowers found in India, with their common names, especially in Indian languages, pictures and habitat, easily available in one place. This is meant to be a place you can look at if you saw a flower and wanted to know more about it. Knowing more about flowers, and then going out and having a look at them, will be more like communing with nature.
What do we mean by Indian Flowers?
One might wonder whether the term Indian in Indian Flowers stands for flowers originally from India or to any flower that is grown in India. Our definition of Flowers of India includes any flower that grows in India. However, we distinguish between the following three categories:
Native : Flowers found wild in India since recorded time, not known to be introduced by any human agency. These include plants like Devil's Claws (Martynia annua) whose seeds attach themselves to animal legs to transport themselves from one region to the other. This category also includes plants which have been only known to grow in cultivation, e.g. potato.
Naturalized : This category includes plants which were originally introduced from elsewhere, but are self-propagating and have become naturalized. These can also be seen
growing wild.
Introduced : This category includes plants which are known to be introduced into India by a human agency. The introduction may have been long back in time.
The three symbols mentioned above have been used in the slides of all the flowers on the site to indicate their category.
One might wonder whether the term Indian in Indian Flowers stands for flowers originally from India or to any flower that is grown in India. Our definition of Flowers of India includes any flower that grows in India. However, we distinguish between the following three categories:
Native : Flowers found wild in India since recorded time, not known to be introduced by any human agency. These include plants like Devil's Claws (Martynia annua) whose seeds attach themselves to animal legs to transport themselves from one region to the other. This category also includes plants which have been only known to grow in cultivation, e.g. potato.
Naturalized : This category includes plants which were originally introduced from elsewhere, but are self-propagating and have become naturalized. These can also be seen
growing wild.
Introduced : This category includes plants which are known to be introduced into India by a human agency. The introduction may have been long back in time.
The three symbols mentioned above have been used in the slides of all the flowers on the site to indicate their category.
Campanulate :(Bell-shaped) A flower with a wide tube and flared lobes (petal tips), typical of the Bellflower family (Campanulaceae). The length of the tube is variable, and the open-ness of the flower, but campanulate is generally shorter and fatter than tubular, and more closed than stellate.
The example is Campanula cochlearifolia.
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