Respected Mam You have the habit of taunting others in the name of humour but people kept ignoring you for you are very senior and for sure hold good knowledge.
I could have raised many points on your mail, but never wanted to, but then you poked me again and again and again, so finally I decided to give a appropriate reply to this. 1. When you say “serendipity” and “totally natural”, to me no village in or outside a forest is natural but man made and most of the plants found in the village are likely not to be original but surely some of them can be natural if they are tribals. Eicchornia is exotic but found in all corners of India. 2. In your second post, you clearly said, “my sister remembers these in south 24 paraganas on mango trees”. Then in next post you wrote, “I did not say this was south 24 paraganas, did I ?”. My answer was very simple, “I cant imagine this to be in South of 24 Parganas.”. 3. My PhD work was in Chhotanagpur (Jharkhand) but I did went to parts of Jhargram, Purulia, Bordering areas in Sultanganj and Santhal parganas. No I didn’t drive to Sonarpur and that entire stretch to Mullickpur. I didn’t have to. West Bengal is well documented area and the climate doesn’t match much to Jharkhand to solve my purpose. On the other side, I did go much deep in Orissa and Chattisgarh. 4. You saw it in Kolkata in Elliot park (AGAIN A GARDEN) and some one stole it next time. I imagine how long it was there and how it managed for so long without being getting stolen. There are many gardeners in and around Kolkata and most of the plants in the nearby states and till Uttarakhand goes from Kolkata as it is directly connected by road and rail. Dendrobium aphyllum is one of the plants they usually extract from further Northeastern part and sell illegally. This plant flowers very well and and set fruits too and its not unlikely that the plant could have escaped from the garden into the city. 5. Your Bimal da wrote to you that he again has it in his GARDEN!! 6. In one of your posts you wrote, “Pankaj: not a botanist nor a taxonomist and esp not an orchid expert... “ At one point I thought you were telling me but didn’t care much and just took it as a missing “I AM” error. 7. Rakesh Biswas’s orchid link is obviously not like your because its Dendrobium microbulbon and yours is Dendrobium aphyllum. Again Oikos write it as common orchid, but my knowledge says its very rare. 8. The list of synonyms was for you because even in your third pic, you labeled the file as Dendrobium peirardii. 9. I am not a painter or photographer and you don’t have to be an artist yourself to criticize other’s art. When I was in school may be in 10th standard I came across this Monalisa painting replica. One of my german friends had been to Paris and she sent me a small copy of the painting that was sold somewhere nearby. I saw the painting and my reaction was, “oh, this is so ugly and offcourse a bad painting”. I went to my dad’s office library and they have a section of books on paintings. I took out Vinci’s book and checked all his painting (whatever I can) but I found other paintings to be much better than this. I really couldn’t make out why I found it ugly at that time. In around two weeks I realized the reason, “the girl doesn’t have eyebrows!!”. 10. It doesn’t matter what camera you use when you take plant pics. What matters is the angle. Your pic on the whole is not bad, but botanically if I cant see the labellum properly then I would say its useless. 11. Your third plant is again inside one GARDEN, so likely not to be wild one. I didn’t miss your point there, but I cant see the river Ganges in the pic. I liked the pic botanically, because I can clearly identify the plant from that pic. 12. Finally there are many orchids which look similar to Dendrobium aphyllum from lower side, some of them are, Dendrobium anosmum, http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3205/2337606070_7582c8b9ab.jpg some varieties of Dendrobium nobile http://www.log-on.org.uk/Pictures/Species/Photos/Dendrobium%20nobile%20var.%20virginalis.JPG Dendrobium primulinum http://flo.com.ua/forum/download/file.php?id=50717 13.People call me plant taxonomist, plant ecologist, orchid expert etc. But I always prefer to be called Plant Explorer. Because I love exploring plants. Exploring in wild and in library and museums as well. I never considered myself as an expert or taxonomist or ecologist. I have seen much better people in life and I dont find me standing anywhere near to them. Then this plant shows lot of variation too. At the same time its taxonomy has been very enigmatic. Some people are not willing to believe that this is aphyllum. Some say Dendrobium cucullatum, others say peirardii is different, some keep them as synonyms. But the latest thing is this is considered as Dendrobium aphyllum. Trust me, for selfless members of efloraofindia, its not simple to identify plants from bad, low resolution pics but we put in a lot of effort to assign a name to a plant and it take a lot of time for us to confirm the name. People come here for easy identification because its easy for them, but not for those who identify the pics. My point is, to my knowledge this cant occur in wild in Kolkata or any Mullickpur etc. But as you said, I didn’t drive to Mullickpur, so I cant say. After spending nearly one hour of my busy office schedule, I don’t want to write further on this thread. Its already too long. Regards Pankaj On Jan 18, 1:51 am, ushadi Micromini <[email protected]> wrote: > Rakesh: isn't scientific inquiry a never ending maze ? > and wonderful, wonderous and exhilaerating? > > lets see what Pankaj comes up with ... > > am always willing to either learn and change views, make new memories > > or write up new data... > usha di > ========= > > usha di > > On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Rakesh Biswas <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > The mystery seems to be deepening. > > > :-) > > > On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 5:25 AM, Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > > >> Few months back I happened to be speaking at one national orchid > >> conference in Sikkim. There was someone who did predictive modelling > >> of Cymbidium in Sikkim. And according to her model, there was chances > >> of occurence of Cymbidium on Mt. Kanchendzonga. Now to say that she is > >> wrong, I dont have to go and check on the mountain if the plant > >> occurred or not. > >> Occurence in Coochbehar is ok to me for this plant, but in almost > >> Sunderban delta is strange. I may be wrong though. > >> Does someone has Bengal Plants by Sir David Prain. I think I would > >> like to see what he wants to say. As I said, I think it should be > >> found somewhere in Jalpauguri and Darjeeling on middle elevations. But > >> in Kolkata and nearby to me sounds very strange. I have not seen any > >> reference of it. I will ask one of my friend. > >> Regards > >> Pankaj > > >> On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 2:43 AM, Giby Kuriakose > >> <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > Nice picture! > > >> > Regards > >> > Giby > > >> > On 15 January 2012 22:49, ushadi Micromini <[email protected]> > >> > wrote: > > >> >> We were on a Sunday afternoon drive when my friends decided to stop and > >> >> have some tea... we drove into a village.. and parked under a kadam > >> >> tree... while they unpacked the picnic baskets and poured tea etc I > >> was > >> >> walking around and a local gentleman came out to see if what / who had > >> >> invaded his property... though there were no boundry indicators per > >> se... > >> >> we apologized, but he turned out to be friendly... and said he just > >> wanted > >> >> to talk, so over tea he told us what he grows etc and very proudly > >> pointed > >> >> at this flower on his Kadam tree... and he even told us its name... he > >> had > >> >> done some research it seems... Dendrobium pierardii.... I came home and > >> >> looked it up... books and the net images show more intense color... > >> than > >> >> I got... and the binomial he told seems to hold ... UNLESS PANKAJ > >> thinks > >> >> otherwise.... > > >> >> I am very happy to have made a friend across from the Ganges and he > >> has > >> >> invited us back whenever the mood strikes us... > > >> >> Serendipity, you ask? why? > > >> >> because as we drove out of Calcutta we were hoping to find something > >> >> totally created by nature... not planted by forest dept, highway > >> department > >> >> or a gardener, nor chopped down or debilitated by humanity... > >> >> and what is more spontaneous than a beautiful orchid flowering on a > >> >> beautiful tree with connection to Krishna... the playful one... > > >> >> Usha di > >> >> =========== > > >> > -- > >> > GIBY KURIAKOSE PhD > >> > Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), > >> > Royal Enclave, > >> > Jakkur Post, Srirampura > >> > Bangalore- 560064 > >> > India > >> > Phone -+91 9448714856begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +91 > >> > 9448714856 (Mobile) > >> > visit my pictures @http://www.flickr.com/photos/giby > > >> -- > >> ********************************************************************** > >> "Taxonomists getting Extinct and Species Data Deficient !!" > > >> Pankaj Kumar Ph.D. (Orchidaceae) > >> Conservation Officer > > >> Office: > >> Orchid Conservation Section > >> Flora Conservation Department > >> Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) Corporation > >> Lam Kam Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. > > >> Residence: > >> 36c, Ng Tung Chai, Lam Tseun > >> Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong. > > >> email: [email protected] > >> [email protected] > >> [email protected] > >> Phone:+852 2483 7128begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +852 2483 > >> 7128 (office - 8:30am to 5:30pm) > >> +852 9436 6251begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +852 > >> 9436 6251 (mobile) > > -- > Usha di > ===========
