Pankaj ji
Thanks for sharing your sentiments. Don't get me wrong. When I said the
Plant is no where near Ocimum, it meant botanically. All species of Ocimum
and easily distinguished by the presence of large almost spoon shaped upper
calyx lobe, and when identifying members of Labiatae, the calyx structure is
used as main criterian. In that regard in Floras Ocimum is generally at the
other end of identification keys.
I never doubted Ban Tulsi, it was and it isBan tulsi, only it is not
Ocimum basilicum (it is Sweet basil, common basil niazbo, babui tulsi, gulal
tulsi, bhuttulsi, kama kasturi, and so many other common names, but not ban
tulsi). Ban tulsi I knew through literature may be a Elsholtzia blanda
(assam), Majorana hortensis (Kumaon), Ocimum gratissimum (Hindi, Bengali)
and Perilla frutescens (Bengal). It was none of these. The book Useful
plants of India by CSRI lists following local names for Hyptis suaveolens:
Hindi: Vilayati tulsi. Beng: Bilati tulsi. Oryia: Ganga tulsi, parodo.
Bihar: Bihunsri, dimbubuha, ara gusumpuru. It does not list Ban tulsi, and
as such did not help me. Thanks Dinesh ji, he identified the plant
correctly.
I invite you to visit Herbal Garden here to see many more scientific
names to know reason for my comments.
As far as local names are concerned they are always useful in quick
identification, and you must have seen recently I have been posting local
regional names in all languages, when an identiofication is complete.
Cheer up Pankaj ji
--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 12:24 AM, Dinesh Valke <dinesh.va...@gmail.com>wrote:
> Friends: it was fastest fingers first !!
> Thank you very much, Gurcharan ji ... my salutes to you.
>
> Regards.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 12:01 AM, Gurcharan Singh <singh...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Me and several botanists had a set procedure of work. If you find any
>> unknown plant, sit with few floras, efloras if you have internet available,
>> get hold of dissecting microscope, needle, brush, blade and a few more
>> things and get busy till you identify the plant. If unsuccessful, photograph
>> it and send to any group or individual who you think can identify this.
>>
>> Two days back I found a plant growing in Herbal garden, labelled as
>> ban tulsi and identified as Ocimum basilicum. This angered me a lot, since
>> it was no where near Ocimum. I sat down with all books I had, tried to study
>> it, but after spending 6-8 hours could not identify this plant. Finally,
>> today I sent it to the group, and after 10 minutes I knew this was Hyptis
>> svaveolens, thanks Dinesh Valke.
>> This made me to rethink and decide. Next time you get a new plant,
>> simply photograph it and send to the group, if you don't get help, only then
>> waste your time with microscopes and books.
>> This is how Indiantreepix and internet has changed the attitudes.
>> Thanks Garg ji, Tabish ji and Dinesh ji.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dr. Gurcharan Singh
>> Associate Professor
>> SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
>> Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
>> Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089
>> http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
>>
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>
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