Great trail through the Garugi forest sir. thank you what is that shit? dropings? which animal? Madhuri --- On Mon, 13/6/11, raghu ananth <[email protected]> wrote:
From: raghu ananth <[email protected]> Subject: [efloraofindia:71706] Garugi (Kurinji) flower plant- drenched with the monsoon rain To: [email protected] Date: Monday, 13 June, 2011, 6:52 PM Even in October, Agumbe and the entire western ghats belt was drenched with the monsoon rain. No sooner we started trekking to the Barkana falls situated within the Agumbe rain forest, than it started pouring. Similar to the lantana, the Garugi (Gurugi), (Kurinji ) flower plant blooms, inundating the forest paths. But these flowers are beneficial for when in bloom (Once in 5-7 years?), they are known to attract bees in very large numbers. And there is a bumper honey yield that year. Unfortunately, the honey bees are known to die in India from a disease called fowl brood. As we trekked, the 15 feet wide forest path got narrowed down to a feet or two thanks to the wild vegetation. In fact, many a time we were reduced to crawling to navigate the Garugi plants in the darkness. But the upside of our adventure was to see the rain drops prettily perched on the flowers – as if the stars had come down to earth! But be warned that there are some risks too - this is leech country and we witnessed a snake (cobra ?) -just in front of us crossing the narrow path and after reaching a safe bush top staring at us! One does come across carnivore scat here and there... Strobilanthus lupulina Syn Strobilanthes heyneanus (To be Validated) ACANTHACEAE Agumbe, Shimoga district, 18 Oct 2010 Regards Raghu
