Botanical and Vernacular Names of South Indian Plants

Plants constitute an integral part of human life. Every moment of man's life is influenced by them. Ever since man understood the importance of plants, he started grouping them into edible, non-edible, medicinal, non-medicinal, poisonous, non-poisonous etc. and naming them to recognise each individually from the language he is familiar with. Thus, to day the most useful plants have their names derived from the regional languages, popularly called vernacular names.

- Vernacular names of plants do not constitute a method. Each name is a law unto itself; it may originate without reference to any other name; it may be an old folk-name or a chance appellation; it may be a degenerated form of another word. It may be a translated word from another language. In certain cases Latin generic names have become vernacular names.

Vernacular names are not universal names; they are applied indiscriminately to genera, species and varieties. They lack precision and not only avoid relationships but many of them suggest false kinship. It is therefore, suggested to reject the use of vernacular names and emphasize the adoption of botanical names in scientific investigations. However, it cannot be denied that many of the commonest and most useful plants are recognised by definite vernacular names. Farmers, foresters, gardeners, horticulturists and laymen still use vernacular names when dealing with plants in their day to day life. To cater to their needs the present compendium is prepared.

In this compendium botanical names of plants occurring in South India have been arranged alphabetically and numbered serially. Botanical names which contain an asterisk sign (*) indicate that these plants do not occur in South India but have South Indian vernacular names.

Botanical names are followed by relevant synonyms in italics and name of the family to which they belong in capital letters. Botanical names found ifi earlier literature like Useful Plants of India, The Indigenous Drugs of India, Indian Materia Medica etc., are retained as synonyms, if different from the valid botanical name to facilitate the user to correlate these names found in these literatures with the present botanical names.

Effort has been made to update the nomenclature of plants, however, some plants still appear under old names to avoid confusion.

Each botanical name is correlated with one or more vernacular name from English, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marati, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu languages. Widely used vernacular names are highlighted in bold letters. In vernacular names several varients in spellings of the names are in usage due to the difference in pronounciation, for e.g. Datura metel L. : (in Kannada) Datthoora, Datthoori, Dathuri, Dhatthoora, Dusthoori, Duthura, Duthuri etc. In such cases selected common names are given.

Appendix-I provides the full name of the authors of plants included in the compendium. Appendix-II gives alternate names of selected families. The Bibliography covers the literature referred to.

A separate index has been tabulated for Botanical names, Families, English, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marati, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Tulu names to facilitate the search of Botanical names in the compendium.