Re: Saroj's guess of *Impatiens glandulifera* kindly check AND READ THROUGH ALL THE CONTENT OF: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/fowh/impatiens-1 ALSO: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/fowh/how-not-to-attempt-to-identify-plants INDEED ALL OF MY 'FLOWERS OF THE NORTH-WEST HIMALAYA - A VIRTUAL GUIDE: https://sites.google.com/a/shpa.org.uk/fowh/.
*I wonder how many Impatiens in the Himalaya have stipular glands?* Any characteristic of foliage which is either diagnostic of a particular species or can help to distinguish between a number of species, when a specimen is not in flower is especially useful is such a challenging genus identification-wise. It would be helpful if members of eFI (after carefully digesting ALL the content of my 'virtual' guide mentioned above) who can access colonies of *I.glandulifera* in the Himalaya, could check if reddish roots at lower notes do exhibit an antiseptic odour as in the UK. HAPPY READING... I CONSIDER MY 'VIRTUAL' GUIDE (WHICH IS IN ITS EARLY STAGES) SHOULD BE *ESSENTIAL* BACKGROUND READING FOR ALL EFLORAOFINDIA MEMBERS, NOT JUST CONTRIBUTORS OF IMAGES. As for *I.glandulifera*, as far as I know, this species is not recorded for Nepal. Hooker's record published in 1842 was probably an error. Hooker's 'Flora of British India' was a decent effort for its time but woefully out-of-date (from the 19th Century) nowadays. It is littered with errors (not to mention many species not recognised at that time) - hardly surprising how little explored and studied India's flora was at that time. To rely on it too heavily is unwise. I have seen recent pages posted of Crassulaceae from Chowdhery & Wadwha's 'Flora of Himachal Pradesh Analysis' ...(1984) which uses the 19th Century nomenclature and taxonomic treatment of Hooker; it is in fact little more than a ABBREVIATED COPY OF CONTENT OF HOOKER'S WORK. *I have no idea what 'Analysis' means in this respect. I do not possess a copy of their 'flora'. Perhaps a member can explain? >From the Crassulaceae pages, it seems one would be better of just referring to Hooker (his Flora is available on-line) BUT recognising just how out-of-date it is...... I hope that Chowdhery & Wadwha gave due acknowledgement of the source of their incredibly brief descriptions - they certainly do not come from observations in Himachal Pradesh themselves nor fresh pressed specimens in Indian herbaria collected by Indian botanists since Independence - as one might reasonably image in a genuine 'Flora'.* When making a suggestion for an identification, it really is important for eFI members to check whether the suggested species 'fits' in terms of prior records for a country/region and altitudinal range. I am dismayed that few owners of 'Flowers of the Himalaya' EVER check this information. Yes, significant extensions of geographic and altitudinal ranges do occur but not very often. If e.g. what a reader of this 'guide' (it is NOT a 'Flora') thinks they have 'matched' to a particular species does not 'tally', in terms of where it grew then probably, they need to look more closely, as in all probability, what they think will be a misidentification. Data-bases littered with misidentifications, whether they are printed check-lists or floras or on-line ones, create MAJOR problems. The objective should always be to ENRICH not ENLARGE a data-base, whether on-line or a traditional herbarium. What matters is not how large the number of specimens there are in a herbarium or entries in an on-line data-base but its QUALITY i.e. how many are RELIABLY IDENTIFIED. Nowadays too many people uncritically accept what they read or see. When one searches/'google's the name of a plant species DO NOT TOO READILY BELIEVE THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES ARE OF THE *GENUINE* ARTICLE - I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT A SIGNIFICANT PROPORTION ARE NOT. On Thursday, August 7, 2014 at 9:08:24 AM UTC+1, Saroj Kumar Kasaju wrote: > Dear Mr. Garg, > > Date: 24 JULY, 2014 > > Location: On the way to Kalinchok, Dolakha District, East Nepal > > Altitude : 9000 ft. > > Thank you and best wishes! > > saroj > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
