|
FLORISTIC
SURVEY OF THE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE CAMPUS, MUMBAI,
MAHARASHTRA
STATE.
T. SRINIVASU AND SATISH PARDESHI
Department of Botany, Institute of Science, 15, Madame Cama Road,
Fort, Mumbai-32.
The floristic survey of the Institute of Science, Mumbai
was done as a part of ‘electronic herbarium and digitaldatabase
preparation of Mumbai’. It consists of 73 trees, 54 shrubs, 87
herbs, 19 climbers and 1 liana belongs to various families of
Angiosperms, Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes. There are many useful
plants growing under different conditions have been revealed herein.
The Institute
of science is located in the fort area of south Mumbai, is one of
the oldest institutions in Mumbai for science. Formerly, it was
known as the Royal Institute of Science. It lies geographically
between 19o L and 72o 50’ L. The Botanical
garden of Institute of Science occupies 0.2 hectares of land with
rich flora and some plants are the sole representatives for entire
Mumbai. The campus has some Gymnosperms and Pteridophytes too. The
entire flora of institute of Science Botanical garden is not
reported earlier either in ‘Flora of Maharashtra’ or ‘Flora of
Maharashtra state’, which was published recently. This Institute has
its own herbarium house contain many holotype species and is the one
of the oldest herbaria in India, dates back to 1884. A detail study
of the flora of the institute was carried out from April 2003 to
April 2005 for preparation of electronic herbarium and digital
database of Mumbai. The National Accreditation and Assessment
Committee (2002), Bangalore has declared the Institute of Science
botanical garden is well maintained one. The list of plants found in
the campus is given below along with its family, habit, common
names, and its socio-economic uses.
The plants of
the campus were surveyed in different seasons during 2003-2005. The
plants images were taken and samples were correctly identified by
usual taxonomic methods and species names were tallied with plant
names given in the International plant list available in the
website. The data was fed in the DELTA software package and later on
bio-information was retrieved from it.
The floristic survey of
the Institute of Science, Mumbai reveals the information that it
consists of 73 trees, 54 shrubs, 87 herbs, 19 climbers and 1 liana
belongs to various families of Angiosperms, Gymnosperms and
Pteridophytes. There are many socio-economical valuable plants
growing in the campus. Those are 77 ornamental; 60 medicinal; 4
both ornamental and medicinal; 16 edible fruit yielding; 5 spice and
condiments; 4 fodder yielding, 3 timber yielding 3 vegetable
plants;1 leafy vegetable; 1 oil yielding; 3 cosmetic plants, 2
bamboos; 1 fire-wood yielding plant; 1 fragrant flowered; 1 camphor,
2 cotton, 1 dye yielding plant & 5 aquatic weeds.
Out of these, 2 plants are rare and 2 are endangered.
|
Botanical names |
Family |
Habit |
Common
names |
Socio-economic uses |
|
Angiosperms |
|
|
|
|
|
Crossandra infundibuliformis (L.) Nees |
Acanthaceae |
H |
Aboli. |
Ornamental |
|
Adhatoda vasica Nees |
Acanthaceae |
S |
Adulsa. |
Medicinal |
|
Pseuderanthemum bicolor
(Schrank) Radlk. ex Lindou. |
Acanthaceae |
S |
-- |
-- |
|
Ruellia tuberosa
L |
Acanthaceae |
S |
Minnieroot. |
-- |
|
Acorus calamus
L. |
Acoraceae |
H |
Sweet flag, calamus root, Yakand, calamus. |
Medicinal |
|
Agave sisalana
Perrine |
Agavaceae |
S |
Sisal hemp. |
Fiber-yielding |
|
Dracaena fragrans
(L.) Ker-Gawl. |
Agavaceae |
H |
Fragrant dracaena. |
Ornamental |
|
Achyranthes aspera
(L) var. aspera |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Aghara, devil's horsewhip. |
Medicinal |
|
Aerua lanata (L.) A. L. Juss. ex Schultes |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Madhuri, kapuri, kupuri,
aerva. |
Medicinal |
|
Aerva Javanica
(Burman f.) A. L. Juss. ex Schultes |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Java aerva. |
-- |
|
Alternanthera sessilis
(L.) R. Br. x DC. |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Kanchri, jaljamba,
sessile joyweed. |
Medicinal |
|
Amaranthus spinosus
L. |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Fox tail, prickly, Kate math, spiny amaranthus, Kaantili
chaulai. |
Medicinal |
|
Amaranthus viridis
L. |
Amaranthaceae |
H |
Slender amaranth, wild amaranth, green pigweed, Math. |
Medicinal |
|
Anacardium occidentale
L. |
Anacardiaceae |
T |
Cashew, East Indian Almond, Kaju. |
Medicinal |
|
Mangifera indica
L. |
Anacardiaceae |
T |
Mango, Amba, Aam. |
Edible fruit |
|
Annona reticulata
L. |
Annonaceae |
T |
Bullock’s-heart, custard apple, Ramphal. |
Edible fruits |
|
Annona squamosa
L |
Annonaceae |
T |
Sweetsop, sugar apple, sitaphal. |
Edible fruits |
|
Artabotrys hexapetalous
(L. f.) Bhandari |
Annonaceae |
S |
Green champa, Hirva champa, Hara champa, climbing
ilang-ilang |
Cosmetic hair oil & medicinal |
|
Polyalthia longifolia
(Sonn.) Thw. |
Annonaceae |
T |
False Asoka. |
Avenue |
|
Adenium obesum
(Forssk.) Roem. &. Schult. |
Apocynaceae |
S |
Adenachakanher, Desert rose. |
Ornamental |
|
Alstonia scholaris
(L.) R.Br. |
Apocynaceae |
T |
Devil’s tree, Saptpani. |
Medicinal |
|
Catharanthus roseus
(L.) G. Don |
Apocynaceae |
H |
Madagascar periwinkle, sadahuli, sadapkuli. |
Medicinal |
|
Kopsia fructicosa
A. DC. |
Apocynaceae |
S |
Shrub vinca. |
Ornamental |
|
Plumeria rubra forma tricolour (R. & S.) Woodrow |
Apocynaceae |
T |
Frangipani, deo chapa, khair champa. |
Ornamental |
|
Rauvolfia serpentina
(L.) Bth. ex Kurz |
Apocynaceae |
S |
Serpina, Sarpagandha, Hadki. |
Medicinal |
|
Rauwolfia tetraphylla
L. |
Apocynaceae |
S |
be still tree |
-- |
|
Tabernaemontana citrifolia
L. |
Apocynaceae |
S |
Adam's apple, milk wood, swastika. |
Ornamental |
|
Tabernaemontana divaricata
(L.) Br. ex Roemer & J.A. Schultes |
Apocynaceae |
S |
Moonbeam, waxflower, east Indian rosebay, tagar, chandni,
pinwheel flower. |
Ornamental |
|
Anthurium crystallinum
Lindl. & Andre |
Araceae |
H |
-- |
Ornamental |
|
Dieffenbenbaehia pictum
Scnhtt. |
Araceae |
H |
Dumb cane. |
Ornamental |
|
Monstera deliciosa
L |
Araceae |
C |
Tarovine, Ceriman. |
Ornamental |
|
Pothos scandens
L |
Araceae |
H |
Money plant. |
Ornamental |
|
Areca catechu
L. |
Arecaceae |
T |
Betel-nut palm, Supari. |
Betel-nut |
|
Caryota urens
L. |
Arecaceae |
T |
Fish-tail palm, Jaggery palm. |
Ornamental |
|
Cocos nucifera
L. |
Arecaceae |
T |
Coconut palm, Nariyal. |
Fiber yielding |
|
Colocasia esculenta
(L.) Schott |
Arecaceae |
H |
Alu, coco yam, chamkara. |
Edible tubers |
|
Livistonia chinensis
(Jacq.) R. Br. ex Mart. |
Arecaceae |
T |
Fan palm, fountain palm. |
Ornamental |
|
Oreodoxa regia
H. B. & K. |
Arecaceae |
T |
Royal palm, Bottle palm. |
Ornamental |
|
Ageratum houstonianum
P. Mill. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Blue mink. |
-- |
|
Blumea lanuginosa
(Clarke) Cook. ex Almeida |
Asteraceae |
H |
-- |
-- |
|
Elephantopus scaber
L. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Prickly-leaved elephanti's foot, Hastipata. |
Medicinal |
|
Guizotia abyssinica
(L. f.)
Cass. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Niger, karal, kala-til. |
Oil yielding crop |
|
Synedrella nodiflora ( L.) Gaertn. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Node weed. |
-- |
|
Tridax procumbens
L. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Tun-tuni, Dagdipala, Ekdandi, Pathri, Bhamburda,
coatbuttons. |
Medicinal |
|
Vernonia cinerea
(L.) Less. |
Asteraceae |
H |
Fleabane, sahadevi, mothi sadori. |
Medicinal |
|
Wedelia chinensis
(Osbeck) Merrill |
Asteraceae |
H |
-- |
Ornamental |
|
Impatiens balsamina
L. |
Balsaminaceae |
H |
Spotted snapweed |
-- |
|
Basella alba
L. |
Basellaceae |
C |
Mayaki Bhaji.,
Ceylon spinach. |
Leafy vegetable |
|
Begonia coccinea
Hook. |
Begoniaceae |
H |
Scarlet begonia |
Ornamental |
|
*Begonia deliciosa |
Begoniaceae |
H |
-- |
|
