REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1. Online Resources for the Plant Taxonomy

Today, many projects on ‘Floras’ are providing online treatments. Flora of

Zambesiaca (Exell & Wild, 1960–), Flora of Europaea (Tutin et al., 1993–), Flora of
North America (Flora of North America Editorial Committee, 1993-), Flora of
Mesoamericana (Davidse et al., 1994–), Flora of China (Wu & Raven, 1994–) and the
Flora of Australia (Orchard & Thompson, 1999–) are a few to cite as glaring
examples . They provide detailed taxonomic information and are updated periodically.
A web-based program called e-Floras has been developed to enable accessing online
“electronic” floras. Several online floristic treatments have successfully been
completed for the Flora of Chile, China, Missouri, North America; Trees and shrubs
of the Andes of Ecuador etc. (Brach & Song, 2006).

Older books, journals, and monographs are being scanned and posted quickly by
Google Books ([Link] Biodiversity Heritage Library
([Link] and Botanicus Digital Library
([Link] Scientific and common names, illustrations and images
are also indexed on websites, thus it has become easy to search for any type of
information on any species from the browsers like Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox
etc.

LucID (Sun et al., 2001), MEKA (Duncan & Meacham, 1986), Navikey (Bartley &
Cross, 2000), ActKey (Brach & Song, 2005), DELTA (Dallwitz et al., 2007) etc., can
be enumerated as interactive keys for plant identification. DELTA, MEKA and LucID
are open source desktop based platforms, which require downloading and installing
their interfaces prior to operating keys. ActKey is an example of online Interactive
keys which does not have above limitations and works in the web browser.

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG III) is the latest and widely accepted online
system of classification for angiosperm taxonomy. All possible characters viz.
molecular, anatomical, phytochemical, morphological, cytological, physiological etc.,
have been taken into consideration to classify angiosperms. Further, this system is
regularly updated from time to time and has wide appreciation and recognition.

8
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Jstor Plant Science is the biggest e-Herbarium, hosting 16,70,379 digital herbarium
specimens of the world covering 79,897 specimens from Africa, 2,819 from Asia,
6,475 from Central America, 10,84,960 from Europe, 4,23,238 from North America,
5,419 from Oceanic countries and 67,571 from South America
([Link] Kew Herbarium's digital collection has 2, 67, 490 digitalized
specimens including 1,33,814 type specimens. Other e-Herbaria are Royal Botanical
Garden, Edinburgh, The Virtual Herbarium of Fairchild Tropical Garden Herbarium
etc. ‘Plant Illustrations’ is the online database providing illustrations for 13,738
recognized genera of vascular plants.

Species 2000 ([Link]) and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System

([Link]) are the two major players in creating an electronic global
framework for taxonomy, which joined forces in 2001 with the Catalogue of Life
(CoL) and are now making rapid progress in cataloguing of all known organisms. The
2002 Catalogue of Life listed 2,60,000 species on CD-ROM and on the Web (Bisby et
al., 2002). The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; [Link]) is also
a vital step towards accessible species level information (Blackmore, 2002). Whereas
“All Species Foundation” was launched in 2001 with the goal of cataloguing every
species on the earth in 25 years (Guerra-Garcia et al., 2008).

Web resources for angiosperm systematics like International Plant Name Index
(IPNI;[Link] TROPICOS ([Link] The Plant list
([Link] World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
(WCSP;[Link] etc., are dealing with a large database related to
cataloguing plant names and/or their status of acceptance or synonymy. IPNI has
more than 52,000 viewers per day ( [Link]). This cerifies the importance and
extreme need of easily available open source databases in plant systematics.

At present Sahyadri:Western Ghats Biodiversity Information System (Ramachandra

& Suja, 2006; [Link] BIOTIK (Ramesh etal.,
2010; [Link] for trees of Western Ghats, are the only two
portals from India, developed by the scientific communities. Altogether, these two
portals give the idea of merely around 4000 species which is only around 23% of total
species recorded for the sub-continent. Apart from this, Flowers of India
([Link] Indian Biodiversity Portal

9
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

([Link] and efloraindia ([Link]

efloraofindia) have been developed by the enthusiastic amateurs.

2.2. History of Floristic Studies in Gujarat

Traces of floristic journey in Gujarat found far back in 18th century when Olof Toren
visited Surat and took seeds to Linnaeus. Sonnerat, the French Zoologist, collected
plants in Surat around 1782 and his specimens are at Paris. In 1787 Banks, president
of the Royal Society of that time sent a Polish Surgeon, Anton Pantaleon Hove, to
Bombay and from there to Ahmedabad to collect plants for the Kew Garden. His
travel diary “Tours made in Guzerat, Kathiawar and the Concans” was published in
1787-88 long after his death. In 1819 Nimmo collected specimens from Surat and sent
to Hooker. Gibson in 1838 collected specimens from Gujarat and had a good
knowledge of the plants of the region as is evident from his general sketch of the
province of Gujarat (Hajra et al., 1996).

Roxburgh (1832), Graham (1839), Dalzell (1850), Palin (1880), Hooker (1872-1897),
gray (1886), Narine (1894), Libosa (1890-1893) and Woodrow (1897-1901) were
some of the distinguished botanists, who visited small areas and made occasional
collections of plants. But their works seem to have been restricted to flying visits
conducted in the better months of the year (Santapau, 1958; Nagar, 2005).

However, a detailed study in the Saurashtra and Kachchh was carried out in the early
20th century. The flora of Kachchh was extensively explored by Blatter which resulted
into “On the Flora of Kutch” (1908-1909). A noteworthy work on the flora of Barda
hills (1910) was brought out by a vernacular taxonomist, Inderji Thaker.
Simultaneously, north and central Gujarat was also studied elaborately by Saxton,
Sedgwick and several others. Sedgwick’s account (1918) on “Cyperaceae of Bombay
Presidency” includes species from Gujarat. Sedgwick also listed grasses of
Ahmedabad and Surat (1914). Saxton and Sedgwick gave an account of “Plants
of North Gujarat Records” in 1918. In 1926 Inderji Thaker published “Plants of
Kutch and their utility”. Borgessen (1929) published “Notes on the vegetation at
Dwarka with reference to Raunkiaer’s Life forms and Statistical methods”.

10
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Santapau studied the flora of Kathiawar in 1950 and published “Plants of Saurashtra –
a preliminary list” (1953). Kapadia published “Notes on some grasses of Junagadh”
(1945) and “Forest wealth of Girnar in Junagadh District of Saurashtra” (1951).
Santapau and Raizada (1954) have also contributed to the flora of the Gir forest.
Raizada and Vaid (1957) listed 256 species in their “Glimpses of the vegetation of
Okhamandal”. Gandhi (1958) made plant collections in Ahmedabad and its vicinity.
Bharati (1959) explored some parts of north Gujarat. Pathak and Oza (1959) studied
“Some useful weeds of Baroda and its neighbourhood and Pavagarh”. Jain and
Deshpande (1960) from Botanical Survey of India reported 23 new records from
Kachchh.

Ansari and Rao (1961) studied and published “Grasslands of Gujarat State”. Santapau
(1962) published the first volume of “Flora of Saurashtra”. Shah (1964) explored
Taranga Hills. Rao & Agrawal from the Ecology Unit of the Botanical survey of
India, Calcutta, explored the saurashtra coast and published three papers (1964, 1966
and 1971). Ahluwalia (1964-1965) studied the medicinal plants of Jamnagar.
Bhandari (1965) has explored the Kachchh. Grasses of Gujarat State was studied by
Patel (1965); Chavan and Oza explored the Dangs forest (1966a) and also published
the flora of Pavagarh (1966b). Kanodia and Nanda (1966) studied the grasses of
Kachchh. Santapau and Janardhanan (1967) published a The “Flora of Saurashtra-
Checklist”. Vaidya (1967) published an account on the “Flora of Ahmedabad”. Rao
and Mukherjee (1967) studied vegetation of coastal area of Saurashtra and published
“Ecological studies of Saurashtra coast and neighbouring islands”. Inamdar (1968a)
explored Dharampur and reported some new records. He also surveyed the
hydrophytes from Valsad district (1968b).

Pavaghadh hills were surveyed by Bedi et al. (1968, 1972). Rao from BSI (1970)
published a paper on the Flora of Kachchh and their economic values. Ahuja and
Pataskar (1970) made additions to the flora of Gujarat. Padate (1971) made
collections in Salvi taluka. Inamdar and Patel (1971) made a survey of Bulsar – Tithal
–Dungari and listed 538 species. Thaker et al. (1970-1971) studied the flora &
vegetation of Chhotaudepur and Kawant. The Gora range of the Rajpipla was
surveyed by Bhatt et al. (1971). Shah & Yogi (1971) published “Some more plants
from Khedbrahma region in North Gujarat”. Bedi (1973) explored the flora and

11
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

vegetation of Ratan Mahal hills. Malhotra and Wadhwa from BSI (1973) explored
Jamnagar district and gave a list of 785 taxa. Oza made plant collections in different
parts of Gujarat (1974). A detailed study in Saurashtra by Pandya (1976) resulted into
“Flora and vegetation of Saurashtra”. Patel et al. (1978) published a paper “A study of
hydrophytes and Marsh plants of Bulsar district in South Gujarat”. “Floristics and
phytosociological studies on some parts of Saurashtra” was published by Menon
(1979). Joshi (1980) studied the flora of Surat and its environs.

“Biological spectrum of the Flora of Shetrujaya Hills, Palitana” was published by

Patel et al. (1981). Rao (1981) studied the flora of South-eastern Kutch. Joshi (1983)
submitted a thesis on “A floristic and phytochemical survey of some important south
Gujarat Forests with special reference to plants of medicinal and ethnobotanical
interest”. Patel et al. (1985) made new Records for Gujarat. “Biological Flora of
Rajkot” was published by Thakar in 1987, Reddy (1987) studied the flora of
Dharampur forests and made several new records for Gujarat.

“Taxonomical and ecological studies of and around Bhavnagar” was published by

Oza (1991), Raole (1993) Studied Endangered and Endemic Desert Taxa of Kachchh.
Bhatt (1993) studied the flora of Western Kuchh and gave an account of plants need
special conservation. “Taxonomical study of Angiosperms of Palitana” was published
by Mehta (1997).

Pandey and Padhya (1997, 2005) made additions to the flora of Gujarat. Nagar (2000)
studied the biodiversity of Barda Hills and also published a book (2005) on “Floristic
Biodiversity of Barda Hills and its surroundings”. Pradeepkumar & Prathapasenan
(2001) studied the tree diversity of shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. Pandey
(2001, 2002 and 2005) made several new records to the flora of Gujarat. Kothari and
Rao (2001) studied mangroves of Gujarat. Nagar and Pandya (2002) made several
new additions to the flora of Saurashtra. Anjaria (2002) studied the Floristic studies of
Anand District. “Floristics and Ethnobotanical Studies on Danta Forest of North
Gujarat” was studied by Patel (2002). Rao (2002) studied the distributional status of
Threatened Plants of Gujarat. Kshirsagar et al. (2003) gave the Status of coastal
vegetation along the coast of South Gujarat, Gujarat State, India. Parmar and
Shrivastava (2003) published some new plant records from Gujarat. Parmar and Singh
(2003) made some interesting new plant records for Gujarat. Meena (2004a, 2005,

12
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2007) published a series of papers on “Some new plants to the Gujarat State I, II and
III” and made “Two new records of Fimbristylis (Cyperaceae) for Gujarat” (2004b).
Meena and Pandey (2004) published a paper on “Reassessment of the phytodiversity
of Gujarat State: floristic composition and floristic analysis, vegetation, threatened
and rare taxa and their conservation strategies”. Salvi (2005) surveyed coastal
vegetation of Gujarat with reference to Marine National Park. Joshi & Bhatt (2006)
published a paper “Observations on the weed flora with special amphasis to crop
fields of Bhuj and Mandvi Talukas, Kachchh district, Gujarat”. Parmar (2006, 2008a
& b) made several new records to Gujarat, especially to North Gujarat and Kutch.

Patel (2012) Studied the floristic and phytosociology of western Kachchh. Desai and
Raole (2008-2013) studied the sedges & Grasses of south Gujarat and made several
new discoveries of Gujarat grasses. Patel (2013) made a critical study on the climbing
plants of Gujarat and made 28 new records for Gujarat State.

During the course of time some new plant taxa were described from Gujarat. Sahni
and Naithani (1976) described Cyperus dwarkensis. Shetty and Pandey (1992)
described Tamarix kutchensis. Parmar (2008c) described a new variety i.e.
Hygrophila schulli var. alba from Gujarat. Desai and Raole described three new
species viz. Desmostachya pingalaiae Raole & Desai (2008), Ischaemum sayajiraoi
Raole & Desai (2011) and Spodiopogon aristatus Desai & Raole (2012).

The major compilation on the flora of three states viz. Gujarat, Maharashtra and
Karnataka earlier known as Bombay Presidency was done by Cooke (1903-1908). A
few botanists such as Santapau (1962), Thaker (1910, 1926), Saxton and Sedgwick
(1918), Bole and Pathak (1988) published regional Floras. Vast information was
further compiled at state level in the form of Forest Flora of Gujarat State (Patel,
1971). For the first time “Flora of Gujarat” was brought out by Shah (1978)
encompassing of 153 families, 788 genera, 1580 species, 124 varieties and 14
subspecies. It has been the landmark in the history of plant taxonomy in India, being
the first State Flora of independent India. Raghavan et al. (1981) from Botanical
Survey of India published “A checklist of the plants of Gujarat” enlisting of 155
families, 861 genera, 1964 species and 87 varieties. Gujarat Ecology Commission
(GEC, 1996) also attempted to update the checklist of Flora of Gujarat in the form of
“current knowledge on the flora of Gujarat” enumerating 146 families, 899 genera

13
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

and 2168 species. However, The Flora of Gujarat State (Shah, 1978) still remains an
important landmark, due to the comprehensive information as well as the
identification keys for each plant species included therein.

From time to time Forest Department explored different protected areas, reserved
forests and biodiversity rich wetlands and documented the distribution status of the
flora in respect to area viz. Study of plant species bio-diversity of Banaskantha forest
(Anon, 1998a), Floristic study of Shamlaji Area dist. Sabarkantha (Anon, 1998b),
Biodiversity study on Vansda National Park (Singh et al., 2000), Ecological status of
Narayan Sarovar Wildlife Sanctuary (Anon, 2001), Biodiversity study in Ratanmahals
Wildlife Sanctuary (Singh et al., 2002), Study of plant species diversity in the
protected areas of the Central North and South Gujarat (Reddy, 2002), The status of
biodiversity in Purna Wildlife Sanctuary (Jethva & Aiyadurai, 2004), Ecology and
biodiversity of Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary and its environs (Pandey & Teli, 2005),
Study of wetland habitats in Kachchh district and suggesting stakeholder driven
management strategies (Anon, 2009), Biodiversity of Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife
Sanctuary (Anon, 2010).

14