One certainly requires a few good books to get started. I am posting this again.
I have combined the feed back received from the members of Indiantreepix for the benefit of everybody & reproduced below: 1. Trees of Delhi - A field guide by Pradip Krishen (Rs.799)-Dorling Kindersley publication- A very good book for identifying trees all over India (though much more relevant to the members from Delhi) as it gives account of 252 species with 1100 good quality photographs. Kudos to the author. An excellent publication! It is definitely worth having it on your bookshelf. 2. Shrikant Ingalhalikar's Flowers of Sahyadri, 2001, Corolla Publications, Pune, (Ph. 020- 24351388) printed by Pragati Offset, Hyderabad. The flowers are restricted to the Western Ghats, specifically to Maharashtra. It can also be carried in your daypack. Concluding Part of Shrikant Ingalhalikar's Further Flowers of Sahyadri, 2007- Field guide to additional 1200 flowers of North- Western Ghats of India. Price- Rs. 800. Though the field guide is titled as Flowers of Sahyadri, it is useful for most plants of all the regions. Besides it also covers trees found in urban habitats. May be it is the first ever such publication. Has breath- taking photographs! Every species described has beautiful photograph. The design, description, photos and the layout are par excellence! 3. Concise flowers of the Himalayas by Oleg Polunin & Adam Stainton (Rs.450)- Oxford Publication- A very good book for identifying & knowing about the flowers of the Himalayas. It explains about 1002 species of Himalayan flowers with colours photographs & Drawings. 4. The book of Indian Trees by K.C. Sahni- Oxford publication (Rs.275)- Explains 153 Indian species in quite technical way. A difficult read for the beginners, though good for advance readers. Explains species with the help of 70 drawings & 20 colours photographs of about 90 species. It is produced by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in Mumbai. 5. Common Flowers of India by D.S.Pandey & N.P.Singh by Publications division (Rs. 250)- highlights 150 common plants. I have not gone through the book, though it appears quite good with good quality pictures. 6. Tropical garden plants by Bose, Choudhary and Sharma. Certain names may have changed since but it has 1661 plates of trees, shrubs, climbers, house plants, cacti and succulents. Worth every bit of about Rs 2000/-. One of the best books for the layman, and horticulturist 7) The BNHS has published *Trees of Mumbai*, 2006. Price Rs. 465/-. Sadly, it is not even half as good as Trees of Delhi. 8) Isaac Kehimkar's book, *Common Indian Wild Flowers*, BNHS, 2000. Price Rs. 375/-. Highly recommended and can be carried in the field. 9) Beautiful trees & shrubs of Kolkata by R.K.Chakraverty & S.K.Jain- published by Botanical Survey of India, Indian Botanical Garden, Howrah- Rs.128 (198 pages)- Very good book for Kolkata members although it is quite useful for others also. Quality of photographs is not upto the mark. However details about Kolkata are very good. 10) *Trees of India*, 1999 by Dr Subhadra Menon & Pallava Bagla. A large book published by Timeless Books, New Delhi. Contains photo descriptions of approx. 80 trees. 11) "The Secret life of Trees" by Colin Tudge, Penguin Books, 2006. It is very interesting and absorbing. More so since the author visited India too. 12- Indian Trees- Dietrich Brandis-1978- antic reference book. 13- Maharashtra flora-4 volumes-Dr. M.R. Almeida-Good reference book to get species account. It is not a field guide. 14- North East Indian Orchids- Mohan Pradhan- very good book. 15- Some beautiful Indian trees-E.Blatter and Walter Millard- for beginners. 16- Our tree neighbors- Chakravarti. S. Venkatesh- National council of Educational research and training- OK book with some useful tips. 17- Some beautiful Indian climbers and shrubs- N.L. Bor and Raizada- Many exotics are included in this book. 18- Focus on sacred groves and ethnobotany- Prof.V.D.Vartak.- this book deals with conservation of trees in older days. 19- Endemic plants of the Indian region- M.Ahmeddullah and M.P. Nayar.- Botanical survey of India.-for further reading it is useful. 20- The private life of plant- David Attenborough- Good to have in collection. Informative. 21- The secret life of plants- Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird- Informative. Good to have. 22- Freaks and marvels of plants life- M.C.Cook- antic book. 23- Taxanomy of vascular plants- George H.M. Lawrence.-Oxford and IBH.-scientific information. 24- Dictionary of Economic plants in India- Umrao Singh, A.M.Wadhwani, B.M. Joshi 25- Kolhapur flora, Corbett flora, Tadoba flora, Khandala flora by Botanical Survey of india. 26- Other antic Marathi books (Vanashree Sristi) also have very good information on trees and their properties, uses etc. 27. Flowering Trees by M.S. Randhawa- Nation Book Trust- Rs. 65/- ( 208 pages)- explains 56 species with the help of plates & figures along with details about which species to be planted in Gardens, villages, Towns, Cities, Avenues, Highways etc. 28. Our Trees by R.P.N.Sinha- Publications Division- Rs.40/- (88 pages).Give account of most common 51 Indian Trees with lot of emphasis on their association with Indian Mythology. 29. A new coffee table book, "Celebration of Indian Trees" by Dr. Ashok Kothari, 2007 has been published by Marg under the aegis of Natural Society of Friends of the Trees. It is a large format book covering approx. 140 species with some full page photographs. The book is very expensive at Rs. 2700 discounted. 30. *'A Revised Survey of the Forest Types of India'*; H.G. Champion and S. K. Seth; Government of India Press, 1968 (Reprinted 2005, Natraj Publishers, Dehra Dun). This is a classic and and an excellent guide to the vegetation and biogeography of plant habitats in India. 31. 'Forest Flora of the Chakrata, Dehra Dun and Saharanpur Forest Divisions, United Provinces'; Upendranath Kanjilal & Basant Lal Gupta; Government of India Publications 1928 (Reprinted 200?, Natraj Publishers, Dehra Dun). Another classic, this is somewhat technical, but excellent for the field identification of plants in Northern India, and especially in the Terai region. Natraj Publishers have recently reprinted the book with some sparse illustrations. There is another book, which is in the same genre as Upendranath Kanjilal's book, but on the trees of Southern India. As a very limited number of copies (1000) were printed, it may be difficult to find (I believe I have one of the last copies to be sold.). It is profusely illustrated and an excellent field guide. I hope that there are plans to produce more copies in the near future. 32. '*Forest Trees of South India'*; S. G. Neginhal, IFS (Retd.); Navbharath Press, Bangalore. 2004. 33. ""Sen'trees' of Mumbai"", a new coffee table book, rather oddly titled, brought out on the occasion of the sesquicentennial year of Mumbai University and supported by Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).The full frame photographs do justice to the size and shape of the trees depicted and I am happy that there is fair amount of written information. Price Rs. 2000/- but discounted at Rs.1500 at Strand Book Shop. -- With regards, J.M.Garg "We often ignore the beauty around us" Creating Awareness about Indian Flora & Fauna: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 For learning about our trees & plants, please visit/ join Google e-group (Indiantreepix) http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. 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