The Flora of Orissa (In 4 Volumes)

Survey and documentation of the floristic wealth of a region is a pre-requisite for planning proper utilization of its potential plant resources on one hand and to conserve the depleting genetic resources on the other. In view of the fact that neither Haines’ Botany of Bihar and Orissa (1921-25) and its supplement by Mooney (1950) nor Gamble’s Flora of the Presidency of Madras (1915-36) covered the entire territory of the present Orissa State and publications and collections subsequently made not only remained scattered but were far from satisfactory, the authors at the Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar took a right step in undertaking a project on floristic survey of Orissa since 1971 and maintained a well organised herbarium of Orissa plants. It was with this background of the authors and the institution that the then Orissa Plantation Development Corporation, approached the authors and sponsored the project on “Flora of orissa” in 1989 and the actual writing work on the flora started. The book is an outcome of the authors’ dedicated efforts over a long period. The intensiveness and exhaustiveness of the work and fairly up-to-date nomenclature of the taxa dealt with make the flora a contribution of high order.