. www.1car.org.1n ISO 9001:20 15 Organization Price : ~ 30 fJ/;) IN!>IAN ~t= Horticulture July-August 2019 Beautiful World of <a~ Oeautiful World of 'O~~CJ>~ Indio is rich in varied array of ecosystems or habitats like forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal, marine and deserts along with rich and unique diversity of flora and fauna. The forest cover of the ifhis SP.ecial Ornam ntal P.lants is conceP.tualised to Agricultural ICAR institutes and State Agricultural enthusiasts. also highlights some SP.ecific i nter.ventions resources etc. the stakeholders to exP.lore the unexP.lored wealth of ornamentals. ISO 9001:2008 Organization INDIA = Horticulture Mr·-""'"" INDI.AN Horticulture July–August 2019 Published bimonthly, Vol. 64, No. 4 C O N T E N T S Cover : Valley of Flowers, Uttarakhand Messages 2-4 Pics Courtesy : Dr Vijay Rakesh Reddy, From the Editor 5 CIAH Bikaner Valmiki Ramayana – the primogenial database 6 Shibani Roy Native ornamentals of the sangam age 8 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE C Subesh Ranjith Kumar Chairman Status of indigenous ornamental plants in India 11 T Janakiram, S A Safeena and K V Prasad • Dr A K Singh Forty Years and beyond: Evolution of JNTBGRI as a pioneer in Plant Genetic 21 Members Resources Conservation • T Janakiram • PL Saroj R Prakashkumar • B Singh • Nirmal Babu Status of indigenous ornamental biodiversity 30 • DB Singh • Vishal Nath Namita, Shisa Ullas P, T Rihne and Bibin Poulose • AK Srivastava • BS Tomar Native ornamentals for minimal maintenance of landscape gardening 36 H P Sumangala • Arvind Kumar Singh • SK Singh Epoxy resin encapsulation: A novel drying technique for native flowers 40 Member-Secretary Priyanka Thakur, A K Joshi and Anup Chandra • Ravinder Verma Native ornamental bamboos of Western Ghats 41 B Gopakumar, A S Subeesh and Mathew Dan Indigenous trees – An overview 43 Editor : Ravinder Verma Jagreeti Gupta and R K Dubey Associate : Vivek Chauhan Indigenous flora of Western Himalayas 50 Priyanka Thakur Design & Production : Punit Bhasin Indigenous ornamental palms of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 56 V Baskaran, T Janakiram and K Abirami Ornamental fern flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 62 Project Director (DKMA) : SK Singh V Baskaran, T Janakiram and K Abirami Incharge (EEU) : Aruna T Kumar Potential indigenous ornamentals of hillocks of Kerala 68 U Sreelatha, Mini Sankar and T V Anupama Chief Production Officer : VK Bharti Floral wealth of Biligiriranga hills 74 H P Sumangala Editorial Contact: Collection, conservation and utilisation of indigenous ornamental crops 76 Telephone: 011-2584 1004, 2584 2828/612 Veena Gupta, Padmavati Ganpat Gore and Anjali Kak Fax: 011-2584 1282 Native conservatory at ICAR-IIHR 82 E-mail: [email protected] H P Sumangala Valley of Flowers – a paradise on earth for nature lovers 84 Business, Subscription and Vijay Rakesh Reddy, Varun Hiremath and Lakshmipathy Advertisement Contact: Indigenous potential ornamental flowering plants of Himachal Pradesh 93 SK Joshi, Business Manager A Chandra, P K Verma, Priyanka Thakur and A K Joshi Indian Council of Agricultural Research Conserve to utilize the wild ornamental plants for ecosystem health and aesthetics 99 Krishi Anusandhan Bhavan, Pusa Akanksha Rastogi, Latika Pandey and A Arunachalam New Delhi 110 012 Potential wild orchids in the genus Vanda from Western Ghats, India 102 Telephone: 011-2584 3657 M Saleem and Mathew Dan E-mail: [email protected] Indigenous ornamental flora for arid landscapes 105 Vijay Rakesh Reddy, S R Kumar and P L Saroj Price : Single Copy `30, US $25 Ex situ conservation of wild ornamental plants at JNTBGRI 113 Special issue `100 E S Santhosh Kumar, R Raj Vikraman, M P Jithin Raj and R Prakashkumar Annual Subscription Crossandra at a Glance Cover III 1 Year `150, US $30 T Janakiram 3 Years `400, US $85 Message GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION AND INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE KRISHI BHAVAN, NEW DELHI 110 001 TRILOCHAN MOHAPATRA, Ph. D. Tel : 23382629; 23386711 Fax: 91-11-23384773 Secretary & Director General E-mail: [email protected] LORICULTURE is entwined in the Indian culture and majority of the ancient scriptures describe a F wide range of native flowers that are often used for worship, personal adoration and above all as remedy for some of the ailments. Floriculture remained as homestead farming till early 90’s with limited large scale commercial cultivation. Advent of economic liberalisation and proactive policies paved the way for the literalised seed policy that helped in the establishment of 100% Export Oriented Units in early 90’s exclusively for floriculture. The impetus provided helped in expansion of the area (324,000 ha) with a sizeable production of traditional flowers (19.62 MT) and cut flowers (8.23 MT) during 2018-19. Majority of the States and Union Territories cultivate floricultural crops for domestic consumption and few of them for export markets. Major exporting hubs are located in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Meghalaya. Being a low volume and high value commodity, floriculture contributes ` 507 crore of export revenue to the exchequer. Marketing of flowers is mostly unorganised with very few organised flower auction centres at Bengaluru, Mumbai and Noida. A typical marketing chain comprises producer, wholesaler, retailer and consumer. However, with the advent of information technology, B2B and B2C online trade is often taking place in major cities. Online gifting solutions are on the rise both for flowers and potted plants. The demographic profile of India has transformed in recent years with 60% of the population is in the age group of less than 35 which makes India as one of the youngest nations. The young generation with dispensable income are going to be the driving force to fuel the consumption of floricultural produce. Expanding urban cities (more than 50 cities with one million population by 2030) and increase in per capita consumption of the floricultural produce shall enhance the demand for more novel types. Such booming growth calls for the introduction of new material to sustain the growth. India is endowed with abundant diversity of native plants that are distributed in 22 Agro-biodiversity hotspots and some of them have great ornamental value. Ecological diversity prevailing in our country is enormous, ranging from sea level to the highest mountainous ranges in the world; hot and arid conditions in the northwest to cold arid conditions in the trans-Himalayan region; tropical wet evergreen forests in Northeast India and the Western Ghats; mangroves of Sundarbans and freshwater aquatic to marine ecosystems. Huge potential exists for identification, domestication and commercialisation of such unique native ornamentals of some of the ecologically diverse regions. An effort has been made by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research to collate and document the resources that are available in ornamental crops in this special volume of the Indian Horticulture. I compliment the Horticultural Science Division of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for the initiative and all the contributors who have meticulously compiled the information. Krishi Bhawan (Trilochan Mohapatra) New Delhi 110 001 -2 Indian Horticulture Message mp;JI( ¥ICAl1. INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH KRISHI ANUSANDHAN BHAVAN-II, NEW DELHI 110 012 Tel : 25842068 Fax: 91-11-25841976 E-mail: [email protected] ANAND KUMAR SINGH Deputy Director General (Hort. Sci.) HE total geographical area of India is estimated to be about 329 million ha with a coastline ranging Tover 7,500 km. India is bestowed upon the distinction of being the sixth among the 12-mega biodiversity zones of the world. India is blessed with varied agro-climatic zones, altitudinal zones, edaphic conditions and other accompanying micro-climatic conditions that nurture rich and diverse flora. India harbours two mega-biodiversity regions the North Eastern hill regions and the Western Ghats. The geographical area cover of the country represents about 2.4% of the world’s total landmass. The major ecosystems in India are forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal, marine and desert. The forest cover of the country is estimated to be about 21.05% of India’s total geographical area. Sixteen major forest types comprising 221 subtypes have been recognised in the country. These forests are major habitats for the native plants that are of ornamental value for their flowers or foliage or plant form. Research efforts in native ornamentals were initiated way back in 19th Century with extensive documentation of native flora. Targeted documentation of native flora was attempted at Dr. Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry during late 90’s, which resulted in a comprehensive database Himflora. Online resources were also developed by Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding, Coimbatore; Flowers of India; Sahyadri: Web interfaced Western Ghats Biodiversity Information System; e-floraofIndia by a Google group in recent times. Research efforts at ICAR are channelized through a project on survey, collection and evaluation of native ornamentals for commercial cultivation through All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Floriculture.The objective is to evaluate the potential of native ornamentals for domestic and export markets. With the advent of Directorate of Floricultural Research at Pune, attempts are being made for collection and conservation of native ornamentals with an objective to evaluate the inherent potential of native ornamental plant species for various applications. The Horticultural Science Division of ICAR deemed it appropriate to collate and compile the scattered information available across the country in this special issue of the Indian Horticulture so as to bring the wealth to the fore. I am sure this treatise would be of great relevance and significance for all the stakeholders. I compliment all the authors for their painstaking efforts in compiling the information in a concise form. Krishi Anusandhan Bhawan II (A K Singh) New Delhi 110 012 July–August 2019 -3 Message UIIPJl;III ¥ICAR.