ITANAGAR, 20 Jan: Biologists from the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have published the first ever pictorial field guide to the trees of Arunachal Pradesh.
Titled Trees of Arunachal Pradesh: A Field Guide, the book is authored by seasoned field biologists Dr Navendu Page of the WII, Dr Aparajita Datta and Bibidishananda Basu of the NCF. “It builds on their collective experience of over two decades of field botany and forest ecology of Northeast India to present an authoritative guide to the trees,” the NCF stated in a release.
The book features more than 1,500 photos of 241 species of trees, shrubs and a few climbers. ‘Keys’ help the reader navigate through the pages and identify each species.
Dr Page informed that “these ‘keys’ are based on easily observable characters such as leaves, flowers, and fruits. These provide pointers to compare similar-looking species, helping get past the lookalikes and identify the plant of interest quickly and accurately.”
The species pages, which form the bulk of the book, give an account of the species’ ecology and utility, with images of the plant parts. One of the highlights of the book is the descriptions of the ecology of the species.
“We have given the flowering and fruiting times, who eats the fruits or how seeds are dispersed from our field observations or literature,” Dr Datta said.
People of Arunachal and other northeastern states where these species occur, or visitors from other regions accompanied by local people familiar with the trees and their regional names can use the exhaustive index of names in several local languages to determine the species’ identities.
Bombay Natural History Society Director Dr Bivash Pandav termed the book “an absolute delight not only for biologists but also for anyone remotely interested in exploring plant life in the land of the rising sun.”
Elegant illustrations and appropriate descriptions, along with actual photographs of the flora make this field guide easy to use for both professionals as well as nature enthusiasts, he said.
“The user-friendly and aesthetic features of the book make it an attractive resource for botany students, naturalists, plant explorers and tree watchers, as well as teachers, researchers, forest department staff and the people of Arunachal Pradesh,” the NCF said.
