This book aims at providing the readers a brief picture of the orchid wealtho f India. The geographical regions, diverse habitats and the distribution of orchids in India, both region-wise and altitude-wise, have been provided under Ecology. The life form, growth habit and morphology of the Indian orchids have been discussed under Morphology. A large number of figures of the habit, inflorescence, flower, lip, column, stigma and restellum, anther and pollinia have been provided to show the extreme ranges of diversity in the vegetative and floral forms of orchids. The flowering behaviour, flowering period and the phenology have also been discussed. Systematics describes the orchid family, key to various subfamilies, and classification of the genera and their tribes and subtribes. An artificial key to the 185 Indian genera, followed by the brief generic description, has been included, too. Orchids with speciality, like having two fertile anthers; with climbing habits; and saprophytic habits, have been discussed separately. A new species under a new genus, and three new combinations have been described. As orchids in the wild today are subjected to various threats, measures for their conservation have been discussed separately. The Enumeration lists 1331 taxa recorded till today in India, showing their regions of occurrence and their flowering periods. A glossary of the botanic terms used in this book has been provided at the end. This book will be helpful to everyone interested in Indian orchids.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sarat Misra
Sarat Misra has an intimate knowledge on the Orissa orchids through his close and prolonged association with the wild. A native of Orissa, he did his degree in Civil Engineering in 1963 from Utkal University. He served under the Governmetn of Orissa in the Works Department and retired in 1998 as Chief Engineer. He was introduced to the orchids during 1968. His main interest was floristics and the taxonomy. But he also studied the phenology, especially of flowering, and the conservation biology of orchids. He has been frequently visiting the herbaria of the Botanical Survey of India. He has also visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the British (Natural History) Museum, London, for study of the Indian orchids. He has to his credit 60 papers published in books and journals within and outside India. He was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Science (honoris causa) in Orchidology by the Utkal Univresity in 1996. he is presently a member of the Orissa State Pollution Control Board and a member of the Research Committee of the Similipal Biosphere Reserve. He is a founder member of the Orchid Society of India and functions as its Secretary for the Orissa and Bihar Chapter. Dr. Misra is also a member of the Orchid Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission from India. He is currently heading a collaborating unit of All India Coordinated Research Project on Taxonomy Capacity Building of Indian Orchids, sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.
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