Dear All, First of all I appreciate the concept of 'Family of the month' and thank those who have taken efforts to compile. Many families have already appeared. I do not know the sequence and the number of families that are going to appear. I wish to make 'better late than never' suggestions and request not to take these as interruption in the current sincere efforts of the members. Pls excuse my ignorance if whatever I am suggesting is already done.
After years of field work I am able to place plants (by observing and remembering obvious similarities between them) into just a few families. The dichotomous keys for families are available in floras but they can not be recollected and applied to so many families in the field. If a simple key based on field characters (not on dissected parts) is made which may lead to a single or a few families, that can be very useful for a non-botanist like me in placing a plant in a (single or a few) family for easy ID of species. We can begin by making a short list of leading families based on the number of species occuring in India. The list can be of 24 to 36 families to last for 2-3 years' period. The brief features of these select leading families can be tabulated and posted with each family. The sequence of families can be as per the current system of classification. For every family, before posting the plants an introduction to the family may be posted so that members can look for those features appearing in plants being posted. This can help to eradicate the apprehension about taxonomy and will make the event interesting. For example (Pls ignore the incorrectness if any) the following information (highlighted in the table) so that the current family can be compared with other families. FAMILY Euphorbiaceae COMMON NAME Spurge EXAMPLE Castor LEADING GENERA Euphorbia, Phyllanthus, Croton, Acalypha, Jatropha COMPOSITION 300 genera, 5,000 species of herbs, shrubs and trees in the world and .. genera, ..species in India DISTRIBUTION Tropical CLASSIFICATION Seeds containing 2 cotyledons, perianth 1-2 seriate in unisexual flowers and absent in bisexual flowers, ovary superior, more than 1 celled, inflorescence of a cyathium. DIGNOSTIC FEATURES Leaves usually alternate, stipulate; plants with milky latex; flowers usually unisexual on same or different plants, I have been trying to update myself (thogh not yet familiar) on 'How to ID a family' for a long time which I think is an intrinsic feature of field botany. I am sure we have experts to generate better ideas on this subject. Regards, Shrikant On Mar 7, 3:45 pm, Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes Rashida ji > > -- > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > Retired Associate Professor > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. > Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ > > On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 4:01 PM, Rashida Atthar > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > Yes Sir let us include genera Phyllanthaceae. So that includes all the > > genera specified in the Kew Plant list which otherwise we have included in > > Euphorbiaceae in our database. We need to mention > > Euphorbiaceae-Phyllanthaceae +(Genus + species name of the plant being > > uploaded) in the subject line. Hope this is fine. > > > regards, > > Rashida. > > > On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]>wrote: > > >> Yes Rashida ji, a nice write u > >> I suggest that we also encourage the upload of genera of Phyllanthaceae, > >> because otherwise it may not be possible to have a separate episode for > >> Phyllanthaceae. > > >> -- > >> Dr. Gurcharan Singh > >> Retired 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 Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Rashida Atthar <[email protected] > >> > wrote: > > >>> Thanks Tanay ! > > >>> regards, > >>> Rashida. > > >>> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 10:33 AM, tanay bose > >>> <[email protected]>wrote: > > >>>> The write-up is a nice one > >>>> Tanay > > >>>> On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Rashida Atthar < > >>>> [email protected]> wrote: > > >>>>> *As most of you are aware, this month for a week starting Monday 7 > >>>>> March 2011 upto Sunday 13 March 2011 the family of focus on the group is > >>>>> Euphorbiaceae. It is a very important, large, interesting and > >>>>> fascinating family!* > >>>>> ** > >>>>> *We have had very high standards of coordinating these family weeks > >>>>> starting with Dr. Balkar ji, Dr. Ritesh ji, Dinesh ji and Mayur ji. > >>>>> Being a > >>>>> non-botanist I shall try to provide coordination to this episode to the > >>>>> best possible extent, within the constraints of time and my other > >>>>> commitments. * > >>>>> ** > >>>>> *I shall also like to appeal to the many distinguished members who > >>>>> have joined recently and also who are present since a long time to > >>>>> participate and enrich this forum with their interactions and inputs. > >>>>> There > >>>>> are many new developments in the field which only experts can enlighten > >>>>> us > >>>>> on. Hoping for another great learning and enriching week on > >>>>> efloraofindia, > >>>>> here's my first very short write-up and pictures on Euphorbiaceae. * > >>>>> ** > >>>>> *From the several postings we have had on the family in the past > >>>>> years, 28 genus or so, the follwing have now been transferred to the > >>>>> Phyllanthaceae family as per Kew Plant LIst : Actephila, Antidesma, > >>>>> Aporosa, > >>>>> Baccaurea, Bridelia, Cleistanthus, Glochidion,, Phyllanthus, Sauropus, > >>>>> Securinega. These aspects will need more discussions, inputs.* > >>>>> ** > >>>>> ** > >>>>> *regards,* > >>>>> *Rashida. * > > >>>> -- > >>>> *Tanay Bose* > >>>> Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant. > >>>> Department of Botany. > >>>> University of British Columbia . > >>>> 3529-6270 University Blvd. > >>>> Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 (Canada) > >>>> Phone: 778-323-4036 (Mobile) > >>>> 604-822-2019 (Lab) > >>>> 604-822-6089 (Fax) > >>>> [email protected] > >>>> *Webpages:* > >>>>http://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/mberbee.html > >>>>http://www.botany.ubc.ca/people/gradstud.html > >>>>https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text -
