Similipal: The Forest of Hundred Orchids

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Morphology. 3. Life form and growth behaviour. 4. Geography, climate and floristic account. 5. Vegetation and orchid habitats. 6. Field study. 7. Flowering behaviour. 8. Systematics. 9. Facts, importance of orchids. 10. Status of Similipal and measures for improvement. 11. Glossary of Botanic terms. 12. Literature cited. 13. References. 14. Plates. 15. Index to scientific names.

Orchids are known for their attractive flowers. It belongs to the most advanced plant family Orchidaceae, the botany of which is even more interesting. This book deals with the biology of the orchids of Similipal forest of Odisha that has the credit of a National Park, a Tiger Reserve and a Biosphere Reserve.

The morphology and lifeform of the orchids from Similipal supported by illustrations is discussed at the beginning. The forest types and the vegetation, alongwith with the orchid species found there, are discussed hereafter. The name of the species, its habitat type, frequency of occurrence and flowering time of all the 100 species seen in Similipal are tabulated.

The enumeration of the species is the prominent part of this book. It gives the correct name of the species, its morphological description, habitat type, frequency and the flowering period; brief field note on the life cycle of the species and its localities of occurrence is put at the end in one page. The scientific illustrations, drawn from living materials by the author, are provided on the facing page. A field key for all these precedes the enumeration. This along with the drawings will be the tools for easy identification of the species in the field. A number of coloured photographs are also provided.

This book with elaborate information on all aspects of orchids will be very useful to Foresters, Plant Scientists, Research scholars and to the Hobbiests interested in study of orchids, not only for Similipal, but also for other regions of India.